Suprava Sahoo

Phytochemical investigation and in vitro antioxidant activity of an indigenous medicinal plant Alpinia nigra B.L. Burtt.

Objective To investigate antioxidant potential of methanol extract of Alpinia nigra leaves.

Chemical composition and antioxidant activity of essential oil from leaves and rhizomes of Curcuma angustifolia Roxb

Abstract The essential oil extracted from rhizome and leaf of Curcuma angustifolia Roxb. (Zingiberaceae) was characterised by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The GC-MS analysis revealed the presence of 32 and 35 identified constituents, comprising 92.6% and 92% of total leaf and rhizome oil, respectively. Curzerenone (33.2%), 14-hydroxy-δ-cadinene (18.6%) and γ-eudesmol acetate (7.3%) were the main components in leaf oil. In rhizome oil, curzerenone (72.6%), camphor (3.3%) and germacrone (3.3%) were found to be the major constituents. Antioxidant capacities of oil were assessed by various methods, 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2, 2-azinobis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) and reducing power ability (RPA). Based on the results, the leaf oil showed more antioxidant potential as compared to rhizome oil and reference standards (ascorbic acid and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT)). Thus, the leaf essential oil of C. angustifolia can be used as an alternative source of natural antioxidant.

Evaluation of genetic fidelity of in vitro propagated shampoo ginger ( Zingiber zerumbet (L.) Smith) using DNA based markers

Drug yielding potential of shampoo ginger ( Zingiber zerumbet (L.) Smith) is due to the presence of important phytoconstituent such as Zerumbone, which is currently being explored for its effects on cancer and HIV. Slow multiplication rate, high susceptibility to rhizome rot and leaf spot disease restricted the availability of the wild gingers. Thus, a protocol has been developed for in vitro propagation of Z. zerumbet using sprouted bud explants from rhizome. The explants in MS media with 4 mg/L benzyl adenine, 1 mg/L indole-3-acetic acid showed highest percentage of response, that is, 93.8%. The aseptic shoots of Z. zerumbet were formed with 5 multiple shoots on MS media with 3 mg/L benzyl adenine and 1 mg/L indole-3-acetic acid and 100 mg/L adenine sulfate. In vitro grown plantlets of Z. zerumbet could be conserved in MS media containing 0.5 mg dm -3 of benzyladenine and 60 mg/L of sucrose subcultured at an interval of eight months. Survival of in vitro conserved plants on multiplication media was 85%. Genetic stability of micropropagated clones were periodically evaluated at an interval of 6 months up to 30 months in culture using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) analysis and genetic uniformity in all regenerants was confirmed.

Evaluation of yield, quality and antioxidant activity of essential oil of in vitro propagated Kaempferia galanga Linn.

Abstract Objective To determine chemical constituents and antioxidant properties of essential oil from rhizome of the medicinal plant, Kaempferia galanga (K. galanga) Linn. (Zingiberaceae) in conventionally propagated (CP) and in vitro propagated (IVP) plants. Methods In vitro (micro) propagation of K. galanga was done by inoculating explants on to Murashige and Skoog agar medium, supplemented with suitable combinations of phytohormones; the regenerants were transferred to soil for further growth. Essential oil preparations of both CP and IVP rhizomes grown in soil, obtained by the hydro-distillation method were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Antioxidant activities of essential oil samples were monitored. Results Maximum numbers of regenerated shoots were found in the medium supplemented with 1 mg/L benzyl adenine and 0.5 mg/L indole-3-acetic acid. A total of 6 compounds were identified from rhizomes from CP and IVP plants that yielded 96.9% and 97.81% of the total oil contents, respectively. The major compound of rhizome oil identified from CP and IVP rhizomes was ethyl p-methoxy cinnamate in quantities, 82.01% and 71.77%, respectively, without any compositional variation. Antioxidant properties of essential oil preparations were assessed by the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and hydrogen peroxide radical scavenging assays. Moreover, antioxidant activities of rhizome-oil from IVP plants were better than that of CP oil samples. Conclusions As IVP rhizomes had better oil yield, those could be used for a large scale commercial propagation for sustainable use of essential oil. The principal chemical in the essential oil, ethyl p-methoxy cinnamate could help apothecary, for several ailments.

Development and validation of an HPTLC method for estimation of coronarin D in Hedychium coronarium rhizome

Rhizome extracts of Hedychium coronarium are widely used as phytotherapeutics. As of date, there is no documented study on the standardization of H. coronarium extract, and the following research is an effort in this direction. Coronarin D is an important bioactive compound present in H. coronarium which shows chemopreventive activity against cancer. H. coronarium extracts were assessed for coronarin D content for the first time. The extraction was checked using different solvents: n-hexane, acetone, and methanol. Coronarin D was separated on silica gel 60F254 high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) plates by isocratic gradient method using n-hexane-ethyl acetate (80:20 v/v) as mobile phase. Densitometric quantification was performed at 231 nm in absorption mode. This method gave a well-defined peak at Rf 0.20 corresponding to coronarin D. The method was validated using International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guidelines in terms of precision, repeatability, and accuracy. Linearity range...

Anticancerous and Immunomodulatory Activities of Alpinia nigra (Gaertn.) Burtt

Abstract The anticancerous and immunomodulatory activities of Alpinia nigra essential oils and extracts were evaluated in the present study. Besides, volatile constituents of essential oils were also analysed by GC/MS. β-pinene (56.27±2.5%), α-Humulene (13.70±1.55%) were found to be the major constituents in the leaf oil whereas rhizome oil contained β-pinene (38.03± 0.25%), myrtenol (9.35±0.3%) as the main compounds. MCF-7 and HeLa human cancer cell lines were used for evaluation of anticancerous activity. The immunomodulatory activities were examined using human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) emphasizing on Th1 and Th2 cytokines. Our results showed that the oil significantly inhibited proliferation of cancer cells in dose-dependent manner. Rhizome oil of Alpinia nigra showed highest percent of inhibition (79 % ± 2.6 for HeLa and 70.9% ± 5.34 for MCF7) at 20 μg/ml concentration. Human PBMC treated with leaf oil showed highest secretion of IFN-γ (102.39 pg/ml) at 40 μg/ml concentration as compared to control (64.56 pg/ ml). The study implies the potential use of oil and extract of A. nigra as potent immunomodulating agent and a therapeutic supplement for breast and cervical cancer treatment. The anti-cancerous and immunomodulatory activities of both oil and extract of A. nigra were shown for the first time in this report.

EST-SSR marker revealed effective over biochemical and morphological scepticism towards identification of specific turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) cultivars

Turmeric (Curcuma longa L., family Zingiberaceae) is one of the most economically important plants for its use in food, medicine, and cosmetic industries. Cultivar identification is a major constraint in turmeric, owing to high degree of morphological similarity that in turn, affects its commercialization. The present study addresses this constraint, using EST-SSR marker based, molecular identification of 8 elite cultivars and 88 accessions in turmeric. Fifty EST-SSR primers were screened against eight cultivars of turmeric (Suroma, Roma, Lakadong, Megha, Alleppey Supreme, Kedaram, Pratibha, and Suvarna); out of which 11 primers showed polymorphic banding pattern. The polymorphic information content (PIC) of these primers ranged from 0.13 to 0.48. However, only three SSR loci (CSSR 14, CSSR 15, and CSSR 18) gave reproducible unique banding pattern clearly distinguishing the cultivars ‘Lakadong’ and ‘Suvarna’ from other cultivars tested. These three unique SSR markers also proved to be effective in identification of ‘Lakadong’ cultivars when analysed with 88 accessions of turmeric collected from different agro-climatic regions. Furthermore, two identified cultivars (Lakadong and Suvarna) could also be precisely differentiated when analysed and based on phylogenetic tree, with other 94 genotypes of turmeric. The novel SSR markers can be used for identification and authentication of two commercially important turmeric cultivars ‘Lakadong’ and ‘Suvarna’.

Transcriptome profiling of Curcuma longa L. cv. Suvarna

Turmeric is an economically valued crop, because of its utility in the food, pharmaceutical industries and Ayurvedic medicine, attracts the attention in many areas of research work. In the present study, we executed resequencing through transcriptome assembly of the turmeric cultivar Suvarna (CL_Suv_10). Resequencing of Suvarna variety has generated 5 Gbases raw data with 75 bp paired-end sequence. The raw data has been submitted to SRA database of NCBI with accession number SRR4042181. Reads were assembled using Cufflinks-2.2.1 tool which ended up with 42994 numbers of transcripts. The length of transcripts ranged from 83 to15565, with a N50 value 1216 and median transcript length 773. The transcripts were annotated through number of databases. For the first time transcriptome profiling of cultivar Suvarna has been done, which could help towards identification of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) between Suvarna and other turmeric cultivars for its authentic identification.

Resequencing of Curcuma longa L. cv. Kedaram through transcriptome profiling reveals various novel transcripts

Curcuma longa L. (Turmeric), of the family Zingiberaceae, is one of the economically as well as medicinally important plant species. It is a sterile, polyploid and vegetatively propagated spice crop cultivated usually in Southeast Asia. In the current study, we carried out re-sequencing through transcriptome profiling of Curcuma longa cv. Kedaram (Cl_Ked_6). We acquired a total of 1 GB raw data by resequencing through paired-end sequencing using Nextseq 500 platform. The raw data obtained in this study can be accessible in NCBI database with accession number of SRR3928562 with bioproject accession number PRJNA324755. Cufflinks-2.2.1 tool was used for transcriptome assembly which resulted in 39,554 numbers of transcripts. The transcript length ranged from 76 to 15,568, having N50 value of 1221 and median transcript length of 860. We annotated the transcripts using multiple databases. This data will be beneficial for studying sequence variations particularly SNPs between cultivars of turmeric towards authentic identification and discovery of novel functional transcripts in Kedaram.