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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.

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.

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.