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Tabernaemontana divaricata Linn. is an ornamental, evergreen and highly useful ethno medicinal plant which is utilized for various traditional treatment purposes worldwide. The plant is commonly called Crepe Jasmine and it is belonging to the family of Apocynaceae. The plant is found in Asia, Australia, China, Japan, Indiaand Myanmar. The plant is 1.5-2.5m in height with silvery grey bark; wrinkled and milky latex exudes when wounded, and has white colored flowers. The leaves are shiny deep green in color. According to the previous study the plant has diverse ranges of phytochemicals constituents such as alkaloids, steroids, flavonoids, phenolic acids and enzymes. The flowers of the plant contain epivoacangine, apparicine, isovoacristine, tabernaemontanine, voaphylline, and vobasine. It is ascribed with extensive series of useful pharmacological activities like anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, analgesic, antioxidant, anti-diabetic, anti-convulsant, antimicrobial and anti-infertility activities. This plant is also used to treat various disorders like abdominal tumors, epilepsy, eye infections, fever, headache, inflammation, leprosy, asthma, diarrhea, paralysis, rheumatic pain, ulceration and vomiting. So, the review article briefly describes the morphological features, ethno medicinal uses, pharmacological properties and phytochemical composition of this medicinal plant. The present study is also is an attempt to combine and document the important information of Tabernaemontana divaricata and highlights the future need for research and development.

Vegetables are intrinsic to a healthy diet. But the peels are discarded as food waste, unknowing of their potential as the source of bioactive compounds. The study aims to find the nutritional constituents, antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of these food wastes. Here we make a comparative investigation among the five underutilized vegetable parts namely, Solanum tuberosum (Potato peel), Cucumis sativus (Cucumber peel), Musa acuminata (Unripe Banana peel), Brassica oleracea (Cauliflower stem), Lagenaria siceraria (Bottle gourd peel). After the primary screening, including proximate and qualitative analysis, the quantification of primary and secondary metabolites as well as minerals was estimated by different standard methods. The antioxidant potential was evaluated by both DPPH and H2O2 radical scavenging assays. Antimicrobial activity was analyzed by Kirby Bauer disc diffusion method against Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram-negative (Escherichia coli) strains of bacteria compared with positive and negative controls. From the proximate analysis, the highest moisture and water content were found in the peel sample of Lagenaria siceraria. Out of ten qualitative tests, protein, fatty acid, flavonoid, alkaloid and xanthoprotein were detected in all five samples. Among the quantitative estimations, Lagenaria siceraria showed the highest amount of polysaccharides (85.82±0.12 mg DE/g DW), ascorbic acid (2.48±0.14 mg AAE/g FW), thiamine (24.46±0.13 mg TE/g DW), polyphenols (86.36±0.10 mg GAE/g DW), flavonoids (49.59±0.07 mg QE/g DW), minerals like K, Ca and Mg and 72.35±0.40% inhibition by DPPH. Simultaneously a significant amount of protein (63.59±0.13 mg BSAE/g FW), the amino acid (7.84±0.02 mg AAE/g DW), minerals like Na, Zn and B and 88.76±0.10% inhibition by H2O2 were found in Cucumis sativus. At a higher concentration, all samples were exhibited significant antimicrobial activity which laid out a strong correlation with previously screened phytonutrients and antioxidants. The overall findings suggested that these underutilized vegetable parts can be utilized in the processing of potential functional foods as well as pharmaceuticals rather than thrown out as agro-waste.

The ancient world had huge faith on the herbal medicines for curing various ailments. Scoparia dulcis Linn. is a medicinal herb of family Scrophulariaceae is considered to be one of such plants which have remarkable curative property. Scoparia dulcis is the commonly known as Sweet broom weed and is distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical region of the world. This herbaceous weed comprises of typical morphological characteristics which are of great use. Dried or fresh leaves, fruits and some other parts of plant serve the purpose of providing with essential components for the body metabolism. Some of the scientific studies demonstrated about the bioactive compounds present in the plant extract. These bioactive compounds were flavonoids, polyphenols, tannins and terpenoids. The fresh and the dried leaves of the herb showed its richness in ascorbic acid content. Scoparic acid, scopadulcic acid, scopadulciol, scopadulin and ammelinare is the major chemical components to which have contributed to the medicinal effect of the plant. Ethnomedicinal application of this herb revealed its uses for diabetes, jaundice, stomach problems, skin disease, fever, kidney stones, reproductory issues and piles. Evidences reported its flawless activity in anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, anti-ulcer, antioxidant, anti-microbial and analgesic illnesses. The current review is concerned with morphological, phytochemical, pharmacological, therapeutic and nutritional aspects of the plant Scoparia dulcis. This review may assist one to acquire encapsulated concept about the herb.

Protein is an important primary metabolite of our living systems. There are several studies based upon analysing the different, individual protein sources from various plant species are still on searching mode. On parallel with this context, traditionally edible plants has been proven to be an enriched source of protein based nutrition and largely utilized by most of the ethnic communities for their survival. The primary objective of the current research investigation is to estimate the total protein content from 33 traditionally used edible plant leaves categorized in trees, shrubs and herbs and to draw a comparative conclusion that which plant leaf contains better protein concentration. The protein content was estimated by UV-Vis spectrophotometric technique using the conventional Lowry’s method. Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) was used as standard reagent against which unknown protein concentration of plants had been estimated. All the proteins were extracted by using phosphate buffer (pH 7.4). From the results, it has been found that under tree category, Psidium guajava shows the highest (98.51 mg BSA Equivalent/ g of Fresh Weight) and Dillenia indica shows the lowest (13.73 mg BSAE/ g of FW) amount of protein content. In case of shrubs, Justicia adhatoda showed the maximum (86.37 mg BSAE/ g of FW) and Ocimum canum shows the minimum (10.59 mg BSAE/ g of FW) amount of protein content. Among the herbs, red Amaranthus viridis contains highest (97.43 BSAE/ g of FW) and Marsilea quadrifolia contains the lowest (15.04 mg BSAE/ g of FW) content of protein. The study results showed that Psidium guajava contains highest amount of protein among all the 33 plants. The study findings conclude that the protein content obtained from the leaves of different plant categories varies in their quantity and further supports the fact that plant leaves can be used as a potential source of nutrient consumption in near future.

Background:Medicinal plants are a source of phytochemicals and they are used for the treatment of several oxidative stress-related or other diseases for their effectiveness, low toxicity and easy availability. Five traditionally used and less characterized herbaceous weeds of West Bengal, India, namely,Heliotropium indicum,Tridax procumbens,Cleome rutidosperma,Commelina benghalensisandEuphorbia hirta,were investigated for the current research study.Methods:Aqueous and 70% ethanolic extracts of the leaves were analyzed for estimation of essential phytochemicals and to evaluate theirin vitroantioxidant status, medicinal properties and cytotoxic effects. To the best of our knowledge, several assays and comparative evaluations using these herbs are reported for the first time. For quantitative study, UV-vis spectrophotometry and high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detector HPLC-DAD techniques were used. Antibacterial properties were investigated using the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. Forin vitroanti-lithiatic study, a titration method was used. The cell viability assay was done using peripheral blood mononuclear cells.Results:The aqueous extract exhibits higher content of polyphenols, flavonoids, tannins and inhibition percentage values for freeradical scavenging assays, whereas the 70% ethanolic extract exhibits higher content of alkaloids and cardiac glycosides. HPLC-DAD analysis of 70% ethanolic extracts led us to identify 10 predominant phenolic constituents.Euphorbia hirtaextracts showed minimum cytotoxicity (cell death~2.5% and 4%in water and 70% ethanolic extract, respectively), whereasCleome rutidospermaandTridax procumbens’70% ethanolic extracts showed higher cell death (~13% and 28%, respectively), compared with the control (cell death ~10-12%).Conclusions:The study concluded that of all the medicinal weeds selected for the current study,Euphorbia hirtapossesses the highest amount of bioactive compounds and hence exhibits the highestin vitroantioxidant activity and promisingin vitromedicinal properties.