Suphla Gupta

Volatile (As and Hg) and non-volatile (Pb and Cd) toxic heavy metals analysis in rhizome of Zingiber officinale collected from different locations of North Western Himalayas by Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy

Ginger is an important ingredient of spice and herbals. The monitoring of toxic heavy metals in the rhizome of ginger is important for protecting public health against the hazards of metal toxicity. The concentration of volatile and non-volatile metals (As, Hg, Pb and Cd), in the soil and rhizome of Zingiber officinale were analyzed using AAS. Soil analysis profile showed uniformity in the metal contents, in active root zone and subsoil, except mercury, which was present in higher quantity in one, out of the four sectors, of the field. The infield metal content in the soil in increasing order was, cadmium < arsenic < lead < mercury. In ginger rhizome the volatile toxic heavy metals arsenic (As) and mercury (Hg) varied from not detected to 0.13 μg/g and 0.01 to 0.42 μg/g, respectively. The non-volatile metals lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) ranged from 0.06 to 0.64 μg/g and 0.002 to 0.03 μg/g, respectively(.) The results illustrated the findings that soil is the major but not the only source of metal accumulation in the plants. In our study, the volatile metal content (As, Hg) was found more in rhizomes collected from Himachal Pradesh while the non-volatile metals were predominant in samples from Uttarakhand.

Identification and characterization of protein composition in Withania somnifera—an Indian ginseng

To have better understanding of the processes that occur in Withania somnifera L. Dunal, proteome analyses were initiated on two tissues (seeds & leaves) of this plant. Protein extracts were separated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) across a broad 3.0–10.0 immobilized pH gradient (IPG) strip that yielded 434 protein spots. A total of 167 individual spots (82 from seeds and 85 from leaves) were excised from the gel and were characterized by peptide mass fingerprinting. From these analyses, 70 individual proteins from seeds and 74 from leaves were identified by protein sequence database interrogation and were catalogued accordingly to different protein functions. A comparative analysis of the two tissues indicated that some enzymes/proteins involved in housekeeping pathways were common to both, whereas some were exclusively tissue specific with specialized metabolic complement. The knowledge gained by this study towards the tissue specific protein expression in W. somnifera would form the basis for our future endeavor of characterization of proteins to understand the physiology and the associated complex metabolic network during its ontogenetic development.

RP-thin layer chromatographic method for the quantification of three gingerol homologs of ultrasonic-assisted fresh rhizome extracts of Zingiber officinale collected from North Western Himalayas.

A rapid and sensitive RP high-performance thin-layer chromatographic (RP-HPTLC) methodology was developed and validated for the quantitative estimation of gingerols in methanolic extract of fresh ginger rhizome. The samples were chromatographed on RP-TLC glass plates pre-coated with RP-18 60F(254) as the stationary phase. Linear ascending development was carried out in twin trough glass chamber saturated with ternary-solvent system consisting of acetonitrile-water-formic acid (7:2:1 v/v/v) at room temperature (25+/-2 degrees C) and plates were scanned at 500 nm. The system was found to give compact spots for gingerols (R(f) values of 6-gingerol 0.73+/-0.04, 8-gingerol 0.59+/-0.08 and 10-gingerol 0.36+/-0.05). Linearity was found to be in the range of 140-840 ng/spot for 6-gingerol, 168-1008 ng/spot for 8-gingerol and 136-816 ng/spot for 10-gingerol with significantly high value of correlation coefficient. The linear regression analysis data for the calibration plots showed linear relationship (r(2)) and ranged from 0.9992 to 0.9937 for 6-, 8- and 10-gingerol. The method was used for routine analyses and to obtain relative amounts of the gingerols in the fresh rhizomes of the ginger cultivated in different locations of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh of North Western Himalayas (India).

Multi-elemental profiling and chemo-metric validation revealed nutritional qualities of Zingiber officinale

Ginger rhizome is a valued food, spice and an important ingredient of traditional systems of medicine of India, China and Japan. An Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) based multi-elemental profiling was performed to assess the quantitative complement of elements, nutritional quality and toxicity of 46 ginger germplasms, collected from the north western Himalayan India. The abundance of eighteen elements quantified in the acid digested rhizomes was observed to be K>Mg>Fe>Ca>Na>Mn>Zn>Ba>Cu>Cr>Ni>Pb>Co>Se>As>Be>Cd. Toxic element, Hg was not detected in any of the investigated samples. Chemometric analyses showed positive correlation among most of the elements. No negative correlation was observed in any of the metals under investigation. UPGMA based clustering analysis of the quantitative data grouped all the 46 samples into three major clusters, displaying 88% similarity in their metal composition, while eighteen metals investigated grouped into two major clusters. Quantitatively, all the elements analyzed were below the permissible limits laid down by World Health Organization. The results were further validated by cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA) to understand the ionome of the ginger rhizome. The study suggested raw ginger to be a good source of beneficial elements/minerals like Mg, Ca, Mn, Fe, Cu and Zn and will provide platform for understanding the functional and physiological status of ginger rhizome.

Encapsulation: entrapping essential oil/flavors/aromas in food

Imparting flavors to foods can greatly enhance the finished product quality, cost, and consumer satisfaction. The food industry is continuously in search of unique flavors with high acceptability ingredients, processing methods, and packaging materials. The industry devotes lot of money to research and development for the enhancement and preservation of flavors, as which are delicate and volatile. Most available aromatic compounds are either extracted from natural sources or synthesized. Many factors linked to aroma affect the overall quality of the food. Since manufacturing, storage, packaging, and ingredients in food often cause modifications in overall flavor by reducing their intensity or producing off-flavor components, the stability of the matrices is an important criterion to preserve the properties of the flavored materials. To limit aroma degradation or loss during processing and storage, it is beneficial to encapsulate volatile ingredients prior to their use in foods or beverages. Encapsulation is the technique by which one material or a mixture of materials is coated with or entrapped within another material or system. This chapter presents an overview of the encapsulation of essential oil/flavor or aroma compounds in food and its importance in the food industry.

Chapter 8 - Marine Resource: A Promising Future for Anticancer Drugs

Cancer is a dreadful human disease, increasing with changing lifestyle, nutrition, and global warming. Its treatments do not have potent medicine as the currently available drugs results in severe side effects. Past activities in this area focused on the natural products derived from medicinal plants. According to the WHO, 80% of the world’s population primarily those from developing countries rely on plant-derived medicines for the health care. Over the past few decades, significant efforts have been made, jointly by pharmaceutical and academic institutions, to isolate and identify new marine-derived natural products. With the advancement of technology and methodology in this area, numerous new compounds have been isolated and several novel anticancer compounds are under clinical investigations. The ocean biomass, covering two-third of the earth, with huge unexplored natural product offers enormous scope and presents an effective alternative in natural product drug discovery. The uniqueness in oceanic mega-diversity is due to spatial as well as temporal competition along with unique habitat with extreme pressure, temperature, and saline conditions. As a result of this, marine organisms have adapted and evolved themselves successfully since centuries in these conditions by producing molecules which are unique in structures, biosynthesis, and function. This “chemical adaptations” is an excellent source of novel chemical entities which is absent in land-based organisms. The past decade has seen more than 10,000 compounds isolated from marine sources which have dramatically increased the number of preclinical anticancers drug under evaluation, and over 300 patents on bioactive natural products from marine sources were granted during this tenure. Efforts, in this direction, became more serious and focused with National Cancer Institute, USA taking a lead role. By collaborative interactions between pharmaceutical companies and research organization, numerous drug-like molecules with several of them having clinical and preclinical potential were discovered. Ecteinascidin-743/ET-743 from Caribbean tunicate and Didemnin and Aplidine from Aplidium albicans are some of the successful examples. Sterols and dietary fibers from seaweeds also hold immense potential. However, investigation of the marine floras chemical entities as drug-like molecule is still in its embryonic stage. The present chapter showcases the past research and reviews the baseline data for promoting further research in this field.

Chapter 9 - Alkaloids: A Source of Anticancer Agents from Nature

All types of cancers involve malfunction of genes that control cell growth and characterized by uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells. Among them, only about 5% of all cancers are strongly hereditary. Since ancient times, nature has been a source of medicines to cure many deadly diseases. In the past plant secondary metabolites have proved to be an excellent reservoir of new medical compounds. Majority of drugs in use today are natural products (NP), their derivatives (ND), natural products mimics (NPD), or semisynthetic derivatives (SSD). Many anticancer agents have been isolated from various plant sources like Catharanthus roseus, Podophyllum species, Taxus brevifolia, Camptotheca acuminate, Betula alba, Cephalotaxus species, Erythroxylum pervillei, Curcuma longa, Ipomoea batatas, Centaurea schischkinii, and many others. Around 55–214 new anticancer drugs derived from natural sources are expected to reach the market. For last two decades, ocean has been considered as the main source of anticancer medicines and thousands of compounds and their metabolites with several different types of biological activities have been isolated from marine microorganisms. Natural product-derived drug molecules have the advantage of being used by the host, thereby making them good candidate for further exploitation for drug-like molecule. Several alkaloids exhibit significant biological activities, such as the relieving action of ephedrine for asthma, the analgesic action of morphine and the anticancer effects of vinblastine. Some of the compounds have already been successfully developed into chemotherapeutic drugs, such as camptothecin, a topoisomerase I inhibitor, and vinblastine, which interacts with tubulin. The search for improved cytotoxic agents (more potent, more selective, and less toxic) continues to be an important line in the discovery of modern anticancer drugs from natural source. The present chapter compiles the available reports on alkaloids as anticancer compounds. The information disseminated through the chapter will help the researchers to get abreast with current knowledge available in the area.

Medicinal and nutritional qualities of Zingiber officinale

Abstract Plant has been explored for several us e s since the emergence of mankind. Modern science has ventured into its numerous uses for fulfilling various needs. Ginger (Zingiber officinale) plant has a unique distinction of being classified as culinary herb, food, and medicine. Traditionally, the plant has time-tested health management properties which are being exploited even today. Epidemiological and animal studies have confirmed its bioactivity. The herb is shown to possess multitude of bioactivities ranging from antibacterial to anticancer agent. Besides ginger, rhizome is rich in fiber, protein, and essential oil. This chapter highlights various clinically proven properties of ginger and proposes ginger rhizome of having potential of being a nutraceutical and functional food, with least side effects.

Epimedium elatum (Morr & Decne): A Therapeutic Medicinal Plant from Northwestern Himalayas of India

Epimedium is a genus of perennial herbs in family Berberidaceae, which are eminent in Chinese ethno-pharmacology due to varied pharmaceutical properties ranging from aphrodisiac, anti-osteoporosis, anticancer, antioxidant, anti-fatigue and anti-ageing to antiviral activities. The biological activities of the plant are attributed to four major chemical constituents—icariin, epimedin A, epimedin B and Epimedium C (ABCI). Epimedium elatum (Morr & Decne), inhabiting Northwestern Himalayas of India, is a unique and rare perennial medicinal herb which has not been researched and exploited much in terms of phytochemistry and molecular aspects.

Chapter 10 - Anticancer Curcumin: Natural Analogues and Structure-Activity Relationship

Abstract Cancers have been found to be the leading causes of death worldwide, with 8.2 million people dying in 2012 and approximately 14 million new cases reported. These cases are estimated to rise by about 70% over the next 2 decades. More than 60% of the worlds new annual cancer cases occur in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America. The analysis, literature survey, and observed reports have indicated cancer is responsible for 70% of all deaths. In men, the 5 most common sites of cancer diagnosed in 2012 were lung, prostate, colorectal, stomach, and liver cancer while in women breast, colorectal, lung, cervix, and stomach cancer were more prevalent. Modern science is devoting resources to and acquiring knowledge of different types of cancer through high throughput advanced technology and by revisiting the hidden treasure of traditional medicine. In Asia, Zingiberaceous plants have been used since ancient times as spices and medicines in traditional Chinese and Indian medicine. Among the Zingiberaceae family, the genus Curcuma, with more than 30 species, has raised hopes for use in cancer therapy. The genus is predominantly found in Asia, and several species, particularly C. longa, C. aromatica, and C. xanthorrhiza, have been extensively used to treat ailments including indigestion, hepatitis, jaundice, diabetes, atherosclerosis, and bacterial infections. Curcuminoids, the principal bioactive component of Curcuma species, share a common unsaturated alkyl-linked two phenyl structural feature. Curcumin [diferuloylmethane, 1,7-bis-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-1,6-heptadiene-3, 5-dione], a broad-spectrum anticancer polyphenolic derivative extracted from the rhizome of C. longa L., is a nontoxic compound and has been classified as “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) by the National Cancer Institute. Several studies in literature survey revealed anticancer properties of curcumin against prostate cancer, cervical cancer, colorectal carcinoma, leukemia, and human breast cancer cells. However, the clinical use of curcumin has been hampered by its poor solubility, absorption, bioavailability, and rapid metabolism. To overcome these limitations, various synthetic bioactive curcumin analogs were developed based on the structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies. This chapter highlights the research-based importance of curcumin and its analogues. Based on the available data, the chapter summarizes the potential and future of curcumin in anticancer therapy.