• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.109-114
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• 2005

Leucas aspera Link. (Lamiaceae) is an important medicinal plant in indigenous systems of medicine in India and commonly known as 'Thumbai'. It has various ethnomedicinal values as various traditional communities find diverse medicinal properties. It is used as antipyretic, stimulant, expectorant and diaphoretic drug. The present communication deals with the detailed pharmacognostical evaluation of whole plant of L. aspera collected from five different geographical zones of the country-Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Karnataka, West Bengal and Gujarat. The botanical characters and TLC fingerprint profile of all the samples were quite similar but some variations were observed in physicochemical parameters. However, some microscopical characters and TLC profile can be used as diagnostic characters for identification of L. aspera, for example amphistomachic leaves and two types of trichomes-abundant, non glandular, uniseriate, 1-3 celled and few glandular, 2-5 celled stalk with rounded tip. Presence of some components at $R_fs-0.56$, 0.65 and 0.76 under UV 366 and at $R_fs-0.31$, 0.43, 0.60, 0.76 and 0.82 under visible light after derivetization in TLC profile may also be used as diagnostic character.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.51-57
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• 2011

The seeds of Abrus precatorius L. (Family- Fabaceae) constitute the drugs Abrus, Gunja, or Ratti in commerce. In the Indian System of Medicine, the seeds are used for sciatica, paralysis, headache, dysentery, diarrhoea, leprosy, ulcer, nervous disorders, alopecia, as well as anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, antibacterial, antitumor, sexual stimulant and abortifacient. Seeds are poisonous and therefore are used after mitigation. The protein abrin is responsible for the highly toxic properties of seeds. Quantitative HPTLC analysis of the methanolic extract of seeds determined the presence of 0.4018% gallic acid and 0.4009% glycyrrhizin. The present study was undertaken to develop an HPTLC method, as well as ascertain the physico-chemical, morphological and histological parameters to establish the authenticity of A. precatorius seeds.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.165-169
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• 2005

Chlorophytum borivilianum Baker (Antharicaceae) commonly referred as 'Safed Musli' has been widely used in the Indian traditional systems of medicine to treat various diseases like rheumatism apart from having immunomodulating property and is used as general tonic. It is also known as 'Ayurvedic viagra' for its aphordisiac properties. C. borivilianum was screened for the first time to determine its antioxidant activity, isolation of the sapogenins and standardization of the isolated sapogenin fraction using HPTLC. Potent antioxidant activity of ethanolic extract was found by their ability to scavenge DPPH (84.51%), hydroxyl radical (48.95 %), ferryl bi-pyridyl complex (84.53%) along with the inhibition of lipid peroxidation (67.17%) at $100\;{\mu}g/ml$ concentration. The ethanolic extract also exhibited significant inhibition of superoxide anion radical generated by photochemiluminescence. Thus, the potent antioxidant activity validates the innumerable therapeutic claims of the plant in the traditional system especially its use as a Rasayana drug.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.83-89
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• 2002

Butea monosperma Kuntze, commonly known as 'Palash', is employed in various indigenous systems of medicine against several diseases and almost every part of the plant has diversified medicinal properties. The seeds are used as anthelmintic, aperient, digesti and to treat piles, skin diseases and abdominal troubles. They also have the property of reducing 'Kapha' and 'Vata' (in Ayurveda). In the present paper a detailed pharmacognostical evaluation of seeds has been undertaken. The study includes macro- and micro-scopical details, fluorescence powder study and HPTLC fingerprinting. The seed is characterized by finely ridged seed coat and palisade-like malpighian cells, discontinuous transparent linea lucida in upper half of malpighian layer and simple & oblong hilum. The study also concludes that the seed samples procured from different places have similar morphological and physico-chemical characteristics. These observations are also supported by similar TLC profiles. The estimation of heavy metals (to detect permissible toxic limits), and fatty acid composition have been carried out. An attempt has also been made to see the ecological and edaphic variations, if any.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.39-47
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• 1999

The flowers of Alcea rosea L., Malvaceae, sold in the Indian market under the trade name 'Gulkhairo', are well known for their expectorant, cooling and diuretic properties and used in many indigenous cough mixtures in India. The present paper deals with the detailed pharmacognosy of the floral parts including morphological, anatomical, phytochemical and fluorescence characters. Some of the diagnostic features of the drug are : pedicel characterized by multicellular appendages, stellate hairs, rosette crystals of Ca-oxalate, starch sheath and large sized mucilage canals; sepals having distinctive multicellular appendages arranged in a semilunar fashion present adaxially at their base; monadelphous stamens, pollen grains pentaporate provided with dimorphic spines; placentation axile, ovules campylotropous; dark green fluorescence of the powder with nitrocellulose in amyl acetate and yellow fluorescence of trichomes under Fluorescence microscope.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.350-354
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• 2015

BACKGROUND: Botanical insecticides, especially Azadirachta Indica extract (AIE) and Sophorae radix extract (SRE) are widely used in Agriculture field. In our previous studies on genotoxicity test of AIE and SRE samples, a suspicious clastogenic properties was shown. Herein, we investigated the DNA damage effect of these botanical insecticide samples through the in vitro comet assay. METHODS AND RESULTS: Chinese hamster lung (CHL) fibroblast cell line was used, and methyl methanesulphonate was as positive control. Respective two samples of AIE and SRE were evaluated using Single Cell Gel Electrophoresis (Comet) assay and measured as the Olive tail moment (OTM). Results from this study indicated that all tested AIE and SRE samples did not show DNA damage in comet assay using CHL cells, compared with control. CONCLUSION: AIE and SRE samples used in this study were not cause genetic toxicity and are suitable for use as organic materials.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.257-279
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• 2009

Plants of genus Dioscorea have long been served as important carbohydrate-stuffed foods in the tropical and subtropical regions, and utilized as traditional herb medicines to enhance digestive function, improve anorexia, and treat diarrhea in oriental countries. It is known that around 600 species of Dioscorea are distributed in the world including 107 species in Asia, but actually utilized Dioscorea species are restricted to small numbers. Phytochemical investigations for Dioscorea species have revealed a number of chemical components such as sapogenins, saponins, phenanthrenes, stilbenes, diterpenes and purine derivatives. According to recent pharmacological studies, Dioscorea species possess significant antioxidant, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory activities as well as anticancer, antidiabetic, cholesterol-lowering and hypolipidemic effects. Here, seven Dioscorea species (D. batatas, D. japonica, D. bulbifera, D. opposita, D. tokoro, D. nipponica and D. alata), mainly distributed and used in Korea, China, and Japan, are reviewed to provide their botanical, phytochemical and pharmacological properties were described.

• Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Korea Conference
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• 2002.04a
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• pp.88-88
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• 2002

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 2003

To prove the extension of shelflife of soybean curd(Tofu) steeped in the diluted solution of botanical antimicrobial agent and stored at 20$^{\circ}C$, such chemical ＆ microbial properties as the contents of moisture, crude protein and crude fat, colony count and surface color of Tofu were investigated in comparison with the control. Tofu treated with botanical antimicrobial agents showed higher contents of moisture, crude protein and crude fat compared to those of the control Tofu through all the storage period. After 7 days of the storage period, cell count of coliform bacteria reach 75 x 103CFU/m1 in the control Tofu, whereas 13∼39 CFU/ml in Tofu treated with botanical antimicrobial agent Treatment of Tofu with botanical antimicrobial agent seemed to be a potential method to prolong the shelflife of processed Tofu.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.663-674
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• 2007

Starches from different botanical sources differ in the ratio of amylose to amylopectin contents, molecular structures of amylose and amylopectin, granule morphology, and minor-component contents. These structural features result in different gelatinization, pasting, retrogradation properties, and enzyme digestibility of starch granules. In this review, compositions and molecular structures of starches and their effects on the physicochemical properties are summarized and discussed.