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Abstract: Podophyllum hexandrum Royle (Syn. P. emodi Wale) a perennial rhizomatous herb found in alpine region distributed in the entire range of Himalayas from Ladakh to Sikkim at an altitude of 3000–4200masl is an preferred commercial source of Podophyllum lignans. It contains three times more Podophyllotoxin than the American species, Podophyllum peltatum. The present study was aimed to investigate variation of Podophyllum lignans contents based on six marker compounds viz. Podophyllotoxin; Deoxypodophyllotoxin; Picropodophyllotoxin; Podophyllotoxin β-d-glucopyanoside; Isopicropodophyllone; 4′-Demethyldeoxypodophyllotoxin, β-d-lucopyanoside, in P. hexandrum population growing at three locations. Further, ontogenetic and morphogenetic variations of Podophyllum lignan contents were studied to investigate dynamics of accumulation of these compounds. Representative collections from three locations viz., Panikhar, Padam and Tangoli located in Trans Himalayan semi-desert region of Zanskar valley were harvested at three stages (dormancy, active growth and maturity). Plants were dissected into root, rhizome and rhizome-buds, dried separately and assayed for Podophyllum lignan contents by high performance liquid chromatography. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Artemisia dracunculus L. (Tarragon) is an important species of Asteraceae. Plants were collected at flowering stage from naturally growing population of Shansha (Himachal Pradesh), North-West Himalaya, India. Air dried shoots (room temperature 25–35°C) were used to extract essential oil using Clevenger-type apparatus for 3h and analyzed. Twenty-four compounds were identified using GC-FID and GC–MS analysis. Major constituent of essential oil was capillene (58.38%), whereas other constituents were Z-β-ocimene (8.63%), β-phellandrene (7.03%), terpinenolene (5.87%), camphene (4.16%), spathulenol (2.02%), β-pinene (1.02%), etc. Chemical composition of essential oil is described and compared with earlier studies. The population is categorized as chemotype of A. dracunculus. As capillene is major constituents, this chemotype may be useful for industrial exploitation as well as chemotaxonomic characterization. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: 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 0.13μg/g and 0.01 to 0.42μg/g, respectively. The non-volatile metals lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) ranged from 0.06 to 0.64μg/g and 0.002 to 0.03μg/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. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]