Flavonoids are exploited as antioxidants, antimicrobial, antithrombogenic, antiviral, and antihypercholesterolemic agents. Normally, conventional extraction techniques like soxhlet or shake flask methods provide low yield of flavonoids with structural loss, and thereby, these techniques may be considered as inefficient. In this regard, an attempt was made to optimize the flavonoid extraction using orthogonal design of experiment and subsequent structural elucidation by high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector-electron spray ionization/mass spectrometry (HPLC-DAD-ESI/MS) techniques. The shake flask method of flavonoid extraction was observed to provide a yield of 1.2 ± 0.13 (mg/g tissue). With the two different solvents, namely, ethanol and ethyl acetate, tried for the extraction optimization of flavonoid, ethanol (80.1 mg/g tissue) has been proved better than ethyl acetate (20.5 mg/g tissue). The optimal conditions of the extraction of flavonoid were found to be 85°C, 3 hours with a material ratio of 1 : 20, 75% ethanol, and 1 cycle of extraction. About seven different phenolics like robinin, quercetin, rutin, sinapoyl-hexoside, dicaffeic acid, and two unknown compounds were identified for the first time in the flowers of T. heyneana. The study has also concluded that L16 orthogonal design of experiment is an effective method for the extraction of flavonoid than the shake flask method.

Medicinal plants are the oldest source of pharmacologically active compounds and provided virtually the only source of medicinally useful compounds for centuries. They contain physiologically active principles that over the years have been exploited in traditional medicine for the treatment of various ailments. The increased likelihood of acute infections and inflammatory conditions in early humans could have set the stage for the natural selection of the use of medicinal herbs high in antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory components. In the present study, the in vitro antibacterial and antifungal activities of different solvent leaf extracts of T. heyneana Wall. was investigated. K. pneumoniae (26±1.0 mm) and S. typhii (9.0±2.0 mm) were proved to be inhibited maximally and minimally by the leaves of T. heyneana. Similarly, the maximum and minimum antifungal effect was observed against Rhizopus mucor (25±0.0 mm) and Trichoderma viridins (6.0±1.0 mm), respectively. Among the solvents methanol was proved to be the best one in the extraction of antimicrobial compounds. Ethanol and aqueous systems were proved to be moderate and chloroform as poor solvent in extracting antimicrobial components. Overall results has proved that T. heyneana leaves possess significant antibacterial and poor antifungal activities.

Inulinase are industrial food enzymes which have gained much attention in recent scenario. In this study, Inulinase producing eight bacterial colonies were isolated and screened from three different plant root tubers soil sample. Among 8 inulinase producing colonies, the higher yielding colony was selected with 25.10 U/mL for further studies. The best inulinase producing colony was identified by partial 16S rRNA gene sequence as Bacillus sp. The crude inulinase was purified by using ammonium sulphate precipitation, dialysis and ion exchange chromatography on DEAE – sephacel and obtained 1.9 purification fold with total activity 293 U. The purified enzyme was subjected to characterization studies and it was found to be stable at 30–60 °C and optimum temperature was at 55 °C. The enzyme was stable at pH 3.0–7.0 and optimum pH was at 6.5. The Km and Vmax value for inulinase was found to be 0.117 mg/mL and 4.45 μmol min mg−1 respectively, demonstrate its greater affinity. Hence, this enzyme can be widely used for the production of fructose, and fructooligosaccharides, which are important ingredients in food and pharmaceutical industry.

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Artocarpus heterophyllus (jack fruit), Manilkara zapota (sapota), Mangifera indica (mango), Vitis vinifera (grapes), Citrus sinensis (orange) and Syzygium cumini (jambul) seeds were selected to evaluate the in vitro invertase inhibitory activity. M. zapota (shake flask method: 98.7%) and A. heterophyllus (shake flask method: 35.6%) seeds recorded the highest and lowest in vitro invertase inhibitory activity, respectively. The two-dimensional thin-layer chromatography and twodimensional preparative thin-layer chromatography (2D PTLC) analyses have demonstrated the presence of polyphenols in M. zapota and A. heterophyllus seeds. The 2D PTLC eluate of M. zapota has recorded a significant invertase inhibitory activity. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry photo diode array analysis of M. zapota has exhibited the presence of four different polyphenols such as benzoyl hexosyl methyl luteolin sulfate (m/z 662.1), 6C/8C hexosyl, 6C/8C pentosyl apigenin (m/z 568), one unknown carboxylated flavonol glycoside (m/z 484.7) and one unknown flavone derivative (m/z 473.8). PRACTICAL APPLICATIONSThe fruits of Manilkara zapota and Artocarpus heterophyllus have been consumed for their sweet delicious nature by most Asian community. Ethnobotanically, many parts of the above said species have been taken orally to treat various ailments. In the current scenario, appropriate food formulation as a health mix may be tried along with the seeds of M. zapota and/or A. heterophyllus to have a balanced glycemic control in the biological system.