Arpita Roy

Effect of Different Media and Growth Hormones on Shoot Multiplication of In Vitro Grown Centella asiatica Accessions

Centella asiatica also known as Gotu Kola is an important medicinal plant which contains several bioactive compounds such as triterpenoid saponins including asiaticoside, madecassoside, centelloside, asiatic acid, etc. In addition, Centella sp. contains other components including flavonoids, phytosterols, tannins, amino acids, sugars, etc. Due to its medicinal importance, this plant is being overexploited and it is essential to conserve this plant. In the present investigation, comparative study of different accessions of Centella asiatica for shoot multiplication in different media and growth hormones was performed. Shoot multiplication and phytocompounds production from different accessions is required to be assessed to choose an accession giving optimum production of phytocompounds. For this, different media containing different combinations of macro and micro nutrients have to be tested that influence the growth of the plant. Assessment of best culture media and concentrations of plant hormone for shoot culture are some of the critical culture conditions to achieve. So there is a need to optimise such conditions that will enhance the growth of the plant. For shoot culture, explant of different accession of Centella asiatica were inoculated in different media i.e. Murashige and Skoog (MS), Gamborg’s B5 and Nitsch medium which were supplemented with standard concentrations of plant growth hormones. The cultures were incubated at 25 ± 2°C with photoperiod of 16 hours. After six week of incubation period, highest growth was found in MS media in all accessions. Further MS medium was supplemented with different combinations of growth hormones. After six week of incubation, MS medium supplemented with 1mg/l BAP showed the highest growth of the plant followed by 2mg/l BAP+0.5 NAA.

Effect of Different Carbon Sources and Elicitors on Shoot Multiplication inAccessions of Centella asiatica

Centella asiatica is a medicinal herb which has been extensively used in the treatment of nervous disorders and skin diseases. It is distributed throughout the tropical and sub-tropical region of the world. This plant contains various bioactive constituents such as asiaticoside, madecassic acid, flavonoids etc. Centella is in huge demand in International market for the preparation of pharmaceuticals and cosmetics which has resulted in its overexploitation. This situation demands the use of biotechnological methods to conserve as well as increase the production of biomass and bioactive compounds. The present study focused the use of different carbon sources (sucrose and fructose) and elicitors (Malt extract, Salicylic acid and Jasmonic acid) for the enhancement of biomass in five accessions of Centella asiatica. It was concluded that Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 1 mg/L concentration of Malt extract and 1.5 mg/L concentration of 6-Benzyl amino purine (BAP) showed highest biomass production among all elicitors. Among two carbon sources, MS media supplemented with Sucrose (3 mg/L) along with BAP (1.5 mg/L) showed better result than fructose.

Medicinal Plants as a Potential Source of Chemopreventive Agents

Cancer is one of the most common deadly diseases and remains as one of the leading causes of death worldwide. High mortality and incidence make it an important public health and economic issue which requires an effective prevention. Radiotherapy, immunotherapy, and chemotherapy are the most common methods used for the treatment of cancer, but these techniques adversely affect the healthy cells. Thus, inhibition of damaging behavior to the healthy tissues with the use of commonly used therapies motivates to explore the new safe methods to treat cancer. Chemoprevention is a novel approach to control cancer; it involves utilization of specific natural or synthetic agents to suppress, prevent, or reverse the malignancy before development of invasive cancer. Products from natural sources such as medicinal plants and herbs and their phytocompounds including flavonoids, alkaloids, carotenoids, etc. show protective effects against various forms of cancers. Chemoprevention of cancer using phytocompounds may be one of the feasible approaches to control this disease. An herbal medicine which refers to the medicinal product of plant stem, roots, leaves, bark, seed, flower, and fruit is one of the best sources for extraction of chemopreventive agents as they are nontoxic in nature and cause less or no side effect to the patients. Consumption of chemopreventive agents containing phytocompounds shows an important insight to fight against cancer and yield promising outcomes. The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of various scientific evidences that support the utilization of medicinal plants and chemopreventive agents for the treatment of cancer.

Fatty Acid Methyl Ester Profile Analysis of In-Vitro Grown Accessions of Plumbago zeylanica

Plumbago zeylanica is a pharmaceutically important plant which belongs to Plumbaginaceae family. It possesses wide range of pharmacological activities which includes antibacterial central nervous system stimulatory activity, anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory, anti-hyperglycemic, anti-cancer and anti-atherosclerotic activity. Fatty acid methyl ester analysis reveals the presence of various fatty acids in the plant. The present study deals with Fatty acid methyl ester profile of five different accession of Plumbago zeylanica. Results reveal that these accessions are rich in Octadecadienoic acid (8-22%), Octadecatrienoic acid (7-24%) and Pentadecanoic acid (11-22%) fatty acids. Accession number 421418 is contains the highest amount of Pentadecanoic acid and 9,12,15 Octadecatrienoic acid. Accession number 439212 contains highest amount of Hexadecanoic acid. Highest amount of 9,12 Octadecadienoic acid was present in accession number 524441.

Qualitative and Quantitative Phytochemical Analysis of Centella asiatica

Centella asiatica commonly known by names like gotu kola, Mandukaparni or Indian pennywort is a small herbaceous perennial medicinal plant belonging to Apiaceae family. Its active metabolites are triterpenoids which includes asiaticoside, asiatic acid, madecassoside, madecassic acid which has wide range of pharmaceutical activities like wound healing, memory enhancer, treatment of skin diseases etc. The present work is aimed to perform phytochemical analysis and estimation of antioxidant activity by DPPH assay. The antioxidant activity by DPPH assay showed maximum IC50 value in CSC extract than shoot and callus extracts. The quantitative estimation of total phenolic, flavanoids and tannins indicates highest phytochemicals in SC when compared to CC and CSC.

Estimation of Asiaticoside by Using RP-HPLC and FAME Analysis of Medicinally Important Plant Centella asiatica

Due to the presence of several bioactive compounds, Centellaasiatica (L.) is used in traditional medicine for the treatment of various ailments. This usage of plant and its products created a huge demand which required an alternative method of its commercial production so that the loss of natural plant and its genetic pool can be prevented. A different investigation using biotechnological methods provided a wealth of information to enhance the biomass as well as different bioactive compounds. In the present study, we focused and reported the effect of different nitrogen sources on shoot proliferation of Centellaasiatica. Effect of malt extract as plant elicitor on asiaticoside production as well as fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) profile was also worked out. Four different nitrogen sources i.e. NH4NO3 (1.65 g/l), KNO3 (0.8 g/l), NaNO3 (1.65 g/l), Ca(NO3)2 (0.825 g/l) on five different accessions of Centellaasiatica were tested and accession number 347492 (14.66 ± 2.4) provided maximum shoot proliferation with ammonium nitrate. RP-HPLC analysis of accession number 347492 revealed that malt extract as plant extract enhanced 6 times asiaticoside in comparison to standard conditions. GC-MS analysis of five different accessions of Centellaasiatica concluded that this plant is rich in the content of Pentadecanoic acid, 9,12 Octadecadienoic acid (Linoleic acid) and 9,12,15 Octadecatrienoic acid (Linolenic acid). Most potential fatty acid methyl esters containing plant accession number is 281374.