Background:
The Lamiaceae (Labiatae) is one of the most diverse and widespread plant families’ in terms of
ethno medicine and its medicinal value is based on the volatile oils concentration. This family is important for flavour,
fragrance and medicinal properties. Manyplants belonging to this family have indigenous value.
Method:
The essential oil of Plectranthus gerardianusBenth. (Lamiaceae), was analysed by GC and GC-MS analysis,
while the major component was isolated and conformed by NMR spectroscopy.
Result:
The oil was found to be rich in oxygenated monoterpenes, which contribute around 62% of the total oil. The major
components identified were fenchone (22.90%) and carvenone oxide (16.75%), besides other mono and sesquiterpenoids.
The in-vitro antimicrobial activity of essential oil was tested against three gram negative bacteria viz. Pasteurellamultocida,
Escherichia coli, and Salmonella enterica, two gram positive bacteria viz. Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis and
two fungi viz. Candida albicans and Aspergillusflavus. The antimicrobial activity of the oil was also compared to the
antimicrobial activity of leaf essential oil of another Himalayan plant viz. Nepetacoerulescens.
Conclusion:
The oil showed in-vitro antimicrobial activity against all the microbial strains and can lessen the ever-growing
demand of potentially hazardous antibiotics for treatment.
Boerhaavia diffusa (Nyctaginaceae), commonly known as Punarnava, has been used to cure various ailments since vedic, unani and ayurvedic periods. Keeping in view the medicinal importance of the punarnava extracts among various ethnic groups of the Himalayas, the reducing potential of aqueous methanolic extract derived from the aerial parts of the plant was evaluated. The n-butanol soluble fraction from water-ethanolic extract, which was found to be a potent anti-oxidative and highly enriched with quercetin glycosides, was fractionated on whatmann N3 Keywords -Boerhaavia diffusa linn. , eupatilin, antioxidant activity, flavonol glycoside, flavones I.
II. Materials And Methods
Plant material:The aerial parts of Boerhaavia diffusa were collected from Kathgodam, a part of terai bhabar and foothill forming region of Kumaon. The flower bearing twig of the plant was authenticated by Prof. P.C. Pandey, Department of Botany, Kumaun University, S.S.J. campus, Almora-263601, Uttarakhand, and deposited in the same department with herb specimen No. FL-P-003.
Extraction and isolation of flavonoid positive fractions:Three kg dried and powdered aerial parts of Boerhaavia diffusa were extracted sequentially with 80% methanol (MeOH) and 50% aqueous MeOH by cold percolation method for six days. The two extracts were filtered and combined. The combined extract was concentrated in vacuo until only H 2 O layer (approx. 60 ml) remained. It was partitioned with 50 %
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