BackgroundThe aim of the present study was to analyse the effect of climate change on phytochemicals, total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant potential of methanolic extracts of Aloe vera collected from different climatic zones of the India.MethodsCrude methanolic extracts of A. vera from the different states of India were screened for presence of various phytochemicals, total phenolic content and in vitro antioxidant activity. Total phenolic content was tested by Folin–Ciocalteau reagent based assay whilst DPPH free radical scavenging assay, metal chelating assay, hydrogen peroxide scavenging assay, reducing power assay and β carotene-linoleic assay were used to assess the antioxidant potential of A. vera methanolic leaf extracts.ResultsAlkaloids, phenols, flavonoids, saponins, and terpenes were the main phytochemicals presents in all accessions. A significant positive correlation was found between TPC and antioxidant activity of different accessions. Extracts of highland and semi-arid zones possessed maximum antioxidant potential. Accessions from tropical zones showed the least antioxidant activity in all assays.ConclusionsIt could be concluded that different agro-climatic conditions have effects on the phytochemicals, total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant potential of the A. vera plant. The results reveal that A. vera can be a potential source of novel natural antioxidant compounds.

The results reveal that metabolites produced by endophytic fungi isolated from Eugenia jambolana can be a potential source of novel natural antioxidant compounds.

BackgroundIn this study, Aloe vera samples were collected from different climatic regions of India. Quantitative HPTLC (high performance thin layer chromatography) analysis of important anthraquinones aloin and aloe-emodin and antiplasmodial activity of crude aqueous extracts was done to estimate the effects of these constituents on antiplasmodial potential of the plant.MethodsHPTLC system equipped with a sample applicator Linomat V with CAMAG sample syringe, twin rough plate development chamber (20 x 10 cm), TLC Scanner 3 and integration software WINCATS 1.4.8 was used for analysis of aloin and aloe-emodin amount. The antiplasmodial activity of plant extracts was assessed against a chloroquine (CQ) sensitive strain of P. falciparum (MRC-2). Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of aqueous extracts of selected samples was determined according to the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended method that was based on assessing the inhibition of schizont maturation in a 96-well microtitre plate. EC (effective concentration) values of different samples were observed to predict antiplasmodial potential of the plant in terms of their climatic zones.ResultsA maximum quantity of aloin and aloe-emodin i.e. 0.45 and 0.27 mg/g respectively was observed from the 12 samples of Aloe vera. The inhibited parasite growth with EC50 values ranging from 0.289 to 1056 μg/ml. The antiplasmodial EC50 value of positive control Chloroquine was observed 0.034 μg/ml and EC50 values showed by aloin and aloe-emodin was 67 μg/ml and 22 μg/ml respectively. A positive correlation was reported between aloin and aloe-emodin. Antiplasmodial activity was increased with increase in the concentration of aloin and aloe-emodin. The quantity of aloin and aloe-emodin was decreased with rise in temperature hence it was negatively correlated with temperature.ConclusionsThe extracts of Aloe vera collected from colder climatic regions showed good antiplasmodial activity and also showed the presence of higher amount of aloin and aloe-emodin in comparison to collected from warmer climatic sites. Study showed significant correlation between quantities of both the anthraquinones used as marker compounds and EC50 values of the different Aloe vera extracts. Although, both the anthraquinones showed less antiplasmodial potential in comparison to crude extracts of different Aloe vera samples. Diverse climatic factors affect the quantity of tested compounds and antiplasmodial potential of the plant in different Aloe vera samples.

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BackgroundPresent study focuses on diversity and distribution analysis of endophytic fungi associated with different tissues of Eugenia jambolana. The influence of season and geographical location on diversity and distribution of endophytic fungi has been analyzed. Antibacterial activity of isolated fungal species has also been investigated against MDR bacterial strains.ResultA total of 1896 endophytic fungal isolates were obtained from healthy, surface sterilized tissues of leaf, stem and petiole tissues during summer, monsoon and winter season. Out of 24 fungal species isolated, 20 species belong to class Ascomycetes, 2 to Basidiomycetes and 2 to Zygomycetes. Maximum species diversity was in rainy season whereas colonization frequency was in winter. All the diversity indices showed maximum species diversity at site 5 (Yamunanager), rainy among the seasons and leaf among the tissues studied. Aspergillus genus was most frequently isolated. Aspergillus niger and Alternaria alternata were most dominant species. Three way ANOVA results showed that effect of season was highly significant on species diversity in relation to sites and tissues. 60 % endophytic fungal extracts showed significant antibacterial activity against one or more than one MDR bacterial strain.ConclusionDifferent fungal species were recovered from different sites but the inter-site comparisons were not significant according to Jaccard similarity coefficient. Diversity of such fungal endophytes indicates that Eugenia jambolana plant acts as an ecosystem facilitating survival of many microbes with impressive antibacterial potential.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12866-016-0664-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Objective: In present study genetic transferability of SSR's from related Acacia species to Acacia nilotica was evaluated along with its genetic diversity analysis from north Indian region.Methods: A total of 30 primers selected from 5 different Acacia species were screened for amplification and polymorphism. Dendrogram and 2 D plot were constructed using NTSys PC version 2.02e. Different diversity parameters like Polymorphism information content (PIC), alleles per primer, number (no.) of amplicons were also calculated for each primer pair. Results: SSRs from Conclusion:Geographical and climatic conditions showed a great impact on genetic diversity. The results indicated high transferability of genomic resources from related species and will facilitate more studies to characterize the relatively less studied Acacia nilotica genome.

In this study Aloe vera accessions were collected from 12 states covering different climatic zones of India. The aqueous crude extracts were investigated for qualitative phytochemical diversity analysis, quantitative estimation of total phenol, alkaloid and flavonoid content and their antibacterial potential against ATCC (American Type Culture Collection) bacterial reference strains. Pearsoncoefficient correlation was used to correlate the quantitative estimation between tested bio-active compounds. Antibacterial potential was evaluated by agar well diffusion method against 9 bacterial reference ATCC strains. MIC (Minimum Inhibitory Concentration) values were calculated by microbroth dilution method. Different Aloe vera accessions showed the presence of alkaloids, glycosides, reducing sugar, phenolic compounds, flavonoids and tannins. Significant correlation was observed between alkaloids and phenols, and flavonoids and alkaloid contents. The correlation analysis also revealed the significant negative correlation between temperature and phenol (-0.803), and temperature and alkaloids (-0.779). Antibacterial activities measured in term of zone of inhibition against tested bacterial strains varied in different accessions of Aloe vera. Aqueous leaf extract of Aloe vera showed good antibacterial potential against both type of bacterial strains, gram positive S. aureus as well as gram negative E. coli and S. typhi. Highland and semi-arid zone accessions showed maximum phytochemical and antibacterial potential as compared to other Aloe vera accessions. Minimum MIC value of 1.2 mg/ml was shown by Highland samples against most of the reference strains. The results also concluded that phytochemical composition of Aloe vera is influenced by various environmental factors especially temperature and it is further correlated with antimicrobial potential of the plant.