Gingelly oil or Sesame oil (Tila taila) is an edible vegetable oil obtained from Sesame seeds (Sesamum indicum Linn. Family: Pedaliaceae). Sesame oil is most widely used in Ayurveda as a base to prepare many medicated oils and also in the preparation of other formulations such as avaleha. As it is having high demand the chances of adulteration are more. The genuinity of gingelly oil (tila taila) in commercial market of Kerala was assessed by evaluating and comparing the physico-chemical characters of market samples of sesame oil with that of genuinely prepared sesame oil. Physico chemical parameters such as Acid value (AV), Iodine value (IV), Refractive index (RI) Saponification value (SV), Specific gravity (SG) and Moisture content were evaluated and were compared with those of genuine sample, API 5 and AGMARK 7 standards. Rancidity test, Boudoin's test, Tests for detection of Mineral oil and Cotton seed oil were also done
Background
Nayopayam kwatha
(NK) is a well-known polyherbal formulation widely used to cure respiratory ailments, heart problems, and postnatal difficulties. Literature suggests that so far no standardization protocol was developed for NK to validate its quality and purity.
Objective(s)
To develop a standardization protocol for NK based on the marker phytoconstituents present in the individual herbs of the formulation.
Materials and methods
The roots of
bala
[
Sida cordifolia
(B1) and
Sida retusa
(B2)], seeds of
jeeraka
(
Cuminum cyminum
), and rhizomes of
nagara
(
Zingiber officinale
) were the ingredients of NK. Since there were two source plants for
bala
, two sets of NK (NKB1 and NKB2) were prepared in the ratio 3:2:1 as per
Vaidya Manorama
and 10:1:1 as per
Arogya
r
aksha Kalpadruma
along with 1:1:1 as per the general way of Ayurvedic polyherbal decoctions. Both the individual herbs and the
kwatha
(decoction) prepared were analyzed in terms of pharmacognostical, organoleptic, and physcicochemical parameters as per the standard methods. Phytochemical analysis of the individual herbs resulted in the isolation of major phytoconstituents and the
kwatha
was quantified in terms of marker compounds with the aid of HPLC.
Results
HPLC quantification suggests that appreciable amount of marker phytoconstituents of individual herbs are present in the
kwatha
. Thus, the isolated compounds luteolin (
C. cyminum
), 6-gingerol (
Z. officinale
),
β
-sitosterol (
S
.
retusa
), and ecdysterone (
S
.
cordifolia
) can be used as markers to standardize NK.
Conclusion
Characteristics of NK, as well as its individual drugs, were well-established
.
The present study of NK with respect to its phytochemistry revealed that the classical drug ratios of the polyherbal formulation are of utmost importance rather than the ingredients in equal proportion. The characterization parameters of individual herbs and
kwatha
described in this study may serve as a standard reference for quality control analysis of NK and the method developed in this study can be used as a reliable technique for standardization of NK to ensure the purity and quality of raw drugs used.
Characterization of plants with DNA markers is an ideal approach for identification of medicinal plant species as they provide objectively analyzable data for accurate and fast identification. There are many medicinal plants described in ancient literatures that have not been exploited for their medicinal values. A documented treasure of traditional knowledge of Kerala’s Ayurvedic and folklore practices is the ‘Hortus Malabaricus’. Description of various useful medicinal plants and their use as single drug can be seen in this ethnomedicinal compendium. The plants Justicia betonica Linn., Thottea siliquosa Lam., Memecylon edule Roxb., Pajanelia longifolia (Willd) K. Schum.) and Bauhinia accuminata Linn described in Hortus Malabaricus are considered to possess immense therapeutic potentials. As the Ayurveda industry as well as practitioners are facing severe scarcity of required medicinal plants, search for establishing the claimed pharmacologic values of hitherto unexplored plants is to be promoted. For this purpose, their proper identification and authentication is needed as a first step of scientific experiments. The molecular characterization including DNA isolation and sequencing provides fast and accurate identification of medicinal plant species. In this project, the molecular characterization of Justicia betonica, Thottea siliquosa, Memecylon edule, Pajanelia longifolia and Bauhinia accuminata, including DNA isolation and quantification, NCBI-BLAST analysis and DNA sequencing was done. The sequence analysis of Thottea siliquosa, Memecylon edule, Bauhinia accuminata and Justicia betonica by BLASTN (NCBI) is revealed 99 to 100 % nucleotide sequence homology with different database sequences enabling species level confirmation.
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