Impact of Seasons and Dioecy on Therapeutic Phytoconstituents ofTinospora cordifolia, a Rasayana Drug

Abstract

Tinospora cordifolia (Thunb.) Miers, Menispermaceae, is a dioecious creeper, commonly known as “Giloe” or “Guduchi” with significant medicinal importance in the traditional systems of medicine. It is designated as Rasayana drug in Ayurveda and recommended for a number of diseases and also as adaptogen and immunomodulator. The safety and efficacy of herbal medicines are closely correlated with the quality of the source materials. The aim of this study is to see the effect of seasons on phytoconstituents and how these vary in male and female stem samples of T. cordifolia. The study revealed that total phenolics and total sugar concentration obtained highest values in summer season while starch and tannin content were found maximum in winter season in both the genders. However, biomarkers, tinosporaside and berberine, reached to their highest concentration in monsoon season. Further, antioxidant potential revealed the highest inhibition percentage in winter season as well as in late summer season. The results of this study suggest that the female plant is best for its therapeutic phytoconstituents and the best harvesting seasons may be either winter or late summer for antioxidant potential and immunomodulator activities and monsoon for antidiabetic activity of T. cordifolia.

Altitudinal variation of berberine, total phenolics and flavonoid content in Thalictrum foliolosum and their correlation with antimicrobial and antioxidant activities

“…The increasing demand of therapeutically important secondary metabolites can be securely met if we are able to map the variation in their content in plants owing to change in seasons and altitudes [28] , [29] , [29] , [30] . Thus the evaluation of altitudinal variation in plant secondary metabolites, triggered by ecologic factors varying with the altitude of the growing site, is very important [3] .…”

Analysis of phytochemical variations in dioecious Tinospora cordifolia stems using HPLC/QTOF MS/MS and UPLC/QqQLIT‐MS/MS

“…Though this plant has been extensively exploited for various biological activities, comprehensive information on major phytoconstituents with respect to gender have remained unexplored. Recently, some preliminary studies (Choudhry et al, ; Sharma et al, ) on gender classification of T. cordifolia have appeared. The need for extensive in‐depth work on characterisation and quantification of phytoconstituents for understanding the implications of dioecy in efficacy, if any, was emphasised by Sharma et al ().…”

Metabolic Study of Dioecy in Mauritia flexuosa: NMR‐based and Chemometric Approaches

“…Due to the separate sexual functions in different plants, differentiation in the allocation of resources and variation in the metabolic profile for these species is expected (Simpson, ). Therefore, studies have been reported for dioecious plants, focusing on metabolic variations between male and female plants (Bajpai et al ., ; Choudhry et al ., ). For example, the phytochemical investigation of Tinospora cordifolia showed variations in the proportions of the metabolites in male and female plants (Bajpai et al ., ), and gender variations were also found in physicochemical profiles (Sharma et al ., ).…”