Volume5,Issue1

Bioassay- guided fractionation of ethanol extract of leaves of Pisonia grandis was studied for its anti-fungal activity for the microorganism Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger, Pencillium citrinum and Monascus purpureus by disc diffusion method. The ethanol extract showed good anti-fungal activity for Monascus purpureus compared to standard clotrimazole.

“Naga guining” is the common name of Thalictrum foliolosum DC. It belongs to family Ranunculaceae. It is a herb with rhizomatous rootstock. In Manipur the rhizome is used in the treatment of fever by the Naga tribes of India. The rhizome is also used in curing piles, dyspepsia, jaundice, diarrhea etc. The present investigation deals with the quantitative and qualitative microscopic evaluation of the  rhizome and establishment of its quality parameters, including physicochemical and preliminary phytochemical evaluation. Chief characters of transverse section include periderm, pericyclic bast fibre and elongated cortical cells. Physicochemical parameters were also established. Preliminary Phytochemical screening revealed the presence of phytoconstituents such as alkaloids, terpenoids, saponins, anthraquinone glycoside and cardiac glycoside. This study can be a reliable tool for determining the status of the plant organ as a crude medicine. It will also serve as an important parameter for Pharmacological investigations and also ensuring quality formulations in future.

The anti-inflammatory activity of a traditional antipyretic polyherbal drug was assessed by preparing its acetone, methanolic and aqueous extracts using cotton pellet method on rats. No mortality or toxic symptom was observed up to the dose of 1000 mg/kg during acute toxicity studies while flavonoids, tannins and carbohydrates were found present in all the extracts. The test drug exhibited highly significant anti-inflammatory effect in case of all extracts at 600 mg/kg dose which was close to that of the standard drug Indomethacin. Slightly lower impact was observed when using test drug dose of 400 mg/kg. Among the three extracts, the methanolic one exhibited the highest inhibition of granulation tissue formation, the aqueous extract having a slightly lower impact while the lowest effect was observed in case of the Acetone extract.

The Ethno medicine involves the use of different plant extracts or the bioactive constituents of vital importance in the health application at an affordable cost and study of such ethno medicine keenly represents one of the best avenues in searching new economic plants for medicine. Keeping this view in mind the present investigation is carried out in Withania somnifera roots collected from the medicinal plant garden of NIAPR, Patiala, Punjab, India. The physicochemical characters and as well as Qualitative phytochemical analysis of this plant confirms the presence of various phytochemicals like alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, saponins, terpenoids and Quinone.

The investigation aimed to carry out the In-vitro antimicrobial activities of the benzene and chloroform extract of Mucuna pruriens seeds. The antimicrobial activity of the extract was determined by the agar well diffusion method against various gram positive, gram negative and spore forming microorganisms and fungi. The chloroform and benzene extract of M. pruriens shown antimicrobial activity against the tested microorganisms E.coli, Candida albicans, Rhodococcus rhodochrous and Arthrobacter protothormiae but chloroform extract shown broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity against Arthrobacter protothormiae. The results obtained in the study shows that chloroform extract of M. pruriens has more antimicrobial activity against Arthrobacter protothormiae because it shown large diameter of Zone of Inhibition (ZI).

Berberis aristata (family Berberidaceae) has been traditionally used as an ingredient of polyherbal formulations for the treatment of diarrhoea. Aqueous extract of stems of Berberis aristata (100, 200, 400 mg/kg, p.o.) was tested for its antidiarrhoeal and antispasmodic effect in mice. The method of magnesium sulphate (2 g/kg) induced diarrhoea were used to evaluate antidiarrhoeal activity, while charcoal meal test and castor oil induced intestinal secretions were used for testing antimotility and antisecretory activity in mice. Aqueous extract of Berberis aristata (BA) treated mice, significantly reduced the induction time of diarrhoea, number of wet stools and total no of stools in the diarrhoea induced by magnesium sulphate. It has also produced antimotility and antisecretory activity in castor oil induced intestinal transit and intraluminal fluid accumulation in mice. These results indicate that BA produces its antidiarrhoeal effect through decreasing intestinal secretions and antispasmodic effect through inhibiting the intestinal motility.

The present study is the first report of phytochemical screening of this wild plant, Atuna indica (Bedd.) Kosterm from Western Ghats, India. The percentage of total phenols (87.6 ± 5.2 mg 100 g-1 gallic acid equiv.) and total flavonoids (67.1 ± 8.1 mg 100 g-1 quercetin equiv.), which contribute significantly to the free radical scavenging activity, was high. In addition, Umbelliferine, a powerful antioxidant agent, has been identified and quantified for the first time in this species.

The present study was to evaluate the phytochemical and antibacterial properties of different extracts of Gloriosa superba. Seeds and tubers contain valuale alkaloids viz., colchine and colchicoside as the major constituents, which are used an antidote for snake bites. The successive Soxhlet extract of seeds and tubers were extracted using hexane, chloroform and methanol in ascending order of the polarity. Preliminary phytochemical screening revealed that the extracts contain Alkaloids, Glycosides, Steriods, Terpenoids and Tannins in all extracts. The extracts were tested for their antibacterial activity against five gram positive bacteria viz., Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, Streptococcus cremoris, Streptococcus fecalis, Staphylococcus aureus and five gram negative bacteria viz., Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhi, Klebsiella pneumonia and Proteus vulgaris by well diffusion method in vitro condition. Among the three extracts tested, methanol extract had effective antibacterial potential, followed by chloroform extract. The methanol extract showed maximum activity against gram positive than gram negative organisms. In methanol extract showed maximum inhibition of 42.3 mm in Bacillus cereus at 250 µl concentration followed by E. coli (38.4 mm), Streptococcus fecalis (37.2 mm), Klebsiella pneumonia (35.6 mm), S. aureus (33.3 mm), P. aeruginosa (30.5 mm), S. cremoris (28.1 mm) Proteus vulgaris (26.9 mm) B. subtilis (23.5 mm) and least inhibition was observed in S. typhi (21.7 mm). Moderate activity was observed in chloroform extract. Minimum activity was observed in hexane at different concentration tested. Compared to synthetic antibiotic Ampicillin (50 mg), solvent extracts recorded significant antibacterial activity. The study confirms the antibacterial potential of Gloriosa superba seeds and tubers extracted using various solvents.

Micropropagation of important medicinal plants and induction of callus was carried out for Nyctanthes arbor- tristis Linn. and Tinospora cordifolia. Murashige and Skoog’s (MS) media supplemented with 2.5 µM of Benzylaminopurine (BAP) and 4.4 µM of BAP showed best response. Screening of Phytochemical constituents was performed using generally accepted laboratory techniques for qualitative evaluation. The constituents screened for were tannins, cardiac glycosides, saponins, terpenoids, flavanoids, reducing compounds and caratenoids. These plants can be considered as potential source of useful drugs.

Plant extracts appears to be one of the better alternatives as they are known to have minimal environmental impact and danger to consumers in contrast to synthetic pesticides. The present study focuses on the phytochemical analysis of fruit of Wrightia tinctoria. The phytochemical screening of both Ethanolic and aqueous fruit extracts revealed the presence of various secondary metabolites such as carbohydrates, alkaloids, phytosterols, phenolic compounds, tannins, flavonoids, cumarine, amino acids, terpenoids and saponins. Present work also calculates total chlorophyll content of fruit containing peel and cellulose which shows strong chlorophyll content in peel.The FTIR analysis of the crude extract of peel gives information about the distribution of functional groups and provides a basis for comparison of compositional differences between isolates and among samples.

In this study, methanolic (MeOH), chloroform (Ch) and ethyl acetate (AcOEt) crudes extracts of leaves Tetraclinis articulata (Vahl) Masters obtained by cold maceration and heat maceration using the soxhlet extractor were screened for the presence of chemically active compounds by Standard methods and then were tested to evaluate their antimicrobial activity against twelve microbial strains using the disc diffusion method. Listeria monocytogenes was the most sensitive towards the different extracts, with diameters of inhibition ranging from 44.67 ± 1.53 mm and 53.00 ± 1.00 mm which is considered significantly different when comparing with the antibiotics used as positive control. However, the other results show the ineffectiveness of the extracts against Klebsiella pneumoniae, Fusariumculmorum, Aspergillus ochraceus, Aspergillus flavus and Candida albicans. The results revealed the presence of tannin Flavonoids and polyphenols in each extracts.

The antioxidant property of Swietenia mahagoni seeds oil was evaluated by in vitro models such as inhibition of DPPH, hydroxyl and nitric oxide radicals and ferric reducing power. Seeds oil showed free radical scavenging as well as reducing property. Different concentration of oil were used for the study and showed a respective hydroxyl free radical scavenging (23.87, 30.16, 30.3.2, 34.2 and 52.05%), DPPH radical (6.50, 7.32, 8.83, 9.52 and 21.06) and nitric oxide radical (13.89, 15.45, 16.41, 19.52, 35.65 and 51.76) activity and all the results were compared to that of standard drugs BHA. Total phenolic content of seed oil was found to 15µg/ml when assayed by Folin–Ciocalteau reagent. The assessment of the antidiabetic properties of the oil by in vitro amylase inhibition assay showed significant activity (86.81, 83.52 and 64.84% µl/ml/min) at respective concentrations of 2, 20 and 200 µl/ml. These results support the use of Swietenia mahagoni seeds oil as an antidiabetic as well as antioxidant drug.

Plants and their extracts have immense potential for the management and treatment of wounds. Wound healing is complicated process that involve four phases viz.(i)Coagulation begins immediately after injury (ii) inflammation which begins with in hours (iii)proliferation which begins with in days (iv)Remodeling up to period of weeks, months, year. Mucuna pruriens seed are being used traditionally as anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial agents in various disorders. This study was aimed to investigate the wound healing efficiency of methanolic extract of seeds formulated as 1% and 2% hydogels of carbapol 974 NF. Carbapol is a pH sensitive polymer and widely used as a base for various topical gel preparation. Wound were induced in swiss albino mice divided into five groups as follows: Group-I (negative control) received no treatment. Group-II was treated with carbapol empty gel. Group-III and IV was treated with carbapol gel containing 1and 2% of methanolic seeds extract, Group-V (positive conrol) received the standard drug (Framycetin cream). The efficacy of treatment was evaluated based on the wound contaction, hydroxyproline content and tensile strength of skin.

Herbs have always been the principal form of medicine in India. Ficus religiosa (L.), commonly known as pepal belonging to the family Moraceae, is used traditionally as antiulcer, antibacterial, antidiabetic, in the treatment of gonorrhea and skin diseases. The plant was subjected to extraction and also fractionated with two various solvent like diethyl ether and n-butanol. The Phytochemical test, TLC and HPTLC reports shows presence of compound only in n- butanol fraction.So this fraction subjected to structural elucidation. The identified compound was stigmasterol.

The peripheral analgesic activity of Gmelina arborea (100, 300 and 1000 mg/kg) was studied using acetic acid-induced Writhing in mice and by Randall-Selitto assay. The central analgesic of alcoholic extract of Gmelina arborea was studied using hot plate method and tail clip method. Alcoholic extract of Gmelina arborea significantly decreased the writhing movements in mice in acetic acid induced writhing test. Alcoholic extract of Gmelina arborea (1000 mg/kg) significantly increased the pain threshold capacity in rats in Randall-Selitto assay and the reaction time in hot plate test but not in tail clip test. Alcoholic extract of Gmelina arborea showed analgesic activity.

Holarrhena antidysenterica (L) (Kutaja-Wall) Apocynaceae, is a common plant widely cited in literature for its medicinal value due to the presence of a large number of alkaloids. Various parts of the tree viz. bark, root, stem and seeds are known to have various medicinal properties including acute and chronic diarrhea and dysentery activity. The alkaloids are present in the polymeric matrix network of proteins and polysaccharide. There are specific enzymes that can break down this proteinaceous and polysaccharide matrix leading to an increase in the release of the drug, which will then facilitate the extraction. The overall effect will be an increase in the overall extraction of the constituents of interest. It was observed that cellulase was most effective in the release of alkaloids.

From Momordica diocia( root),  compounds were  isolated. their structures were established on the basis of spectral studies. and identified as 8- hydroxyoctyl pentadec -15 enoate (1),  5- hydroxy eicos-10- none (2), 5-hydroxy nonyl decanoate (3).

The antibacterial activity of the various extracts of the stem bark of Salvadora oleoides Decne. , was evaluated by the agar well diffusion method. The extracts were prepared by continuous hot percolation method with chloroform and methanol. Aqueous extract was prepared by maceration. The presence of phytosterols, flavonoids, tannins, phenols, carbohydrates, proteins and amino acids were detected in the preliminary phytochemical tests. Moderate antibacterial activity was observed in the extracts (250μg/ml) against some pathogenic microorganisms when compared with the standard ciprofloxacin.