Phytochemical Screening of Meconopsis aculeata Royle an Important Medicinal Plant of Kashmir Himalaya: A Perspective

Abstract

Medicinal plants have bioactive compounds which are used for curing of various human diseases and also play an important role in healing. Phytochemicals have two categories i.e., primary and secondary constituents. Primary constituents have chlorophyll, proteins sugar and amino acids. Secondary constituents contain terpenoids and alkaloids. Medicinal plants have antifungal, antibacterial and anti-inflammation activities. The present study involves medicinal plant Meconopsis aculeta which is locally available in Kashmir Himalaya. The aerial and rhizome parts of the selected medicinal plant were washed, air dried and then powdered for qualitative and quantitative analysis. Different extracts of aerial and rhizome parts were used to find out the phytochemical constituents in the Meconopsis aculeta. The main objective of the research work was to check the presence or absence of the phytochemical constituents and quantitative analysis in different extracts of Meconopsis aculeta. The results of the phytochemical analysis of Meconopsis aculeta showed that the terpenoids, phlobatannins, flavonoids and alkaloids were present. The phytochemical analysis of medicinal plants is very important commercially and has great interest in pharmaceutical companies for the production of the new drugs for curing of various diseases. It is expected that the important phytochemical constituent recognized in Meconopsis aculeta found in Kashmir Himalaya will be very useful in the curing of various diseases of this region.

Polyphenolic and phytochemical content of Cucumis sativus seeds and study on mechanism of preservation of nutritional and quality outcomes in enriched mayonnaise

“…At 5th week of storage at 25 °C, the POV of the control and BHA‐treated sample reached its highest value of 9.65 and of 6.5 meq kg −1 , respectively, when it was 2.6 meq kg −1 for CSS‐enriched sample with significant difference ( P < 0.05). Moreover, these values were comparatively higher than the sample stored at 4 °C and the storage temperature influenced the rate of oxidation effectively (Ahmad et al ., ). The results showed that polyphenols in CSS play a major role in the effective inhibition against lipid oxidation in enriched mayonnaise (Yang et al ., ).…”

“…Saponin, alkaloids, tannins, anthraquinones, triterpenoids and steroids are the other major groups of plant constituents that work predominantly as powerful antioxidants or scavenger of free radicals. Phytochemicals have exhibited anti‐inflammatory activities and anthraquinones used as antimalarial agent (Ahmad et al ., ) (Table ). The triterpenoids have also been shown to decrease blood sugar level, and the tannins (high molecular weight phenols) are able to quench free radicals, which in turn depended on the number of aromatic rings, molecular weight and nature of the hydroxyl group substitution (Samec et al ., ).…”

“…The phytochemical screening of major constituents such as saponin, alkaloids, tannin, anthraquinone, triterpenoids and steroids was assessed according to Ahmad et al ., .…”

“…The incorporation of natural antioxidants, which are molecules capable of preventing or delaying the oxidative lipid damage represents a key alternative to overcome the quality deterioration of lipid‐based food products, provoked mainly by the attack of the reactive oxygen species (ROS) (Aleman et al ., ). Natural antioxidants can act as retarders, when they counteract lipid oxidation by protecting target lipids from oxidation initiators or by hindering the propagation phase, the so‐called chain‐breaking antioxidants (Ahmad et al ., ; Yang et al ., ). Recent years, food enrichment seems to be an easy and cheap way for improving nutritional quality.…”

Pharmacognostic Standardization, Phenolic and in Vitro Antioxidant Activity of <i>Silene villosa</i> (Family: Caryophyllaceae)

“…The Medicinal value of any plant is due to its contents from secondary metabolites 3 . The phytochemical analysis is the first step to explore and understand the healing properties of medicinal plants 4 . Pharmacognostical evaluations, i.e., macroscopic and microscopic studies are important for authentication and quality assessment of herbal materials 5 .…”