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AbstractCurcuma aromaticaSalisb. is an aromatic medicinal plant belonging to the family Zingiberaceae. It has various pharmacological activities and is also known for its ethnobotanical uses in India such as tonic, carminative, antidote to snakebites, cosmetic uses, etc. Hence in this study, 18 samples were collected from different localities of the Eastern and Southern parts of India. The essential oil yield was calculated on a fresh weight basis and varied from 0.3 to 1.45 %. The GC-MS analysis of the essential oil led to the identification of forty-four constituents which represented 81.07 to 94.07 % of the total oil. The major components in most of the accessions were xanthorrhizol (8.8 to 24.41 %), camphor (4.06 to 18.14 %), germacrone (3.53 to 21.85 %), neo-curdione (5.82 to 14.62 %),1,8-cineole (3.73 to 11.89 %), borneol (2.36 to 7.16 %), camphene (1.65 to 6.83 %), linalool (0.15 to 3.8 %), curdione (0.16 to 4.10 % ), ar-curcumene (0.47 to 4.82 %) and germacrene D (0.12 to 3.24%). It is observed that the major constituents are not the same in all the accessions of four different states. The quantity and quality of essential oils as well as their bioactivity are affected by variation in different environmental conditions. Therefore the finding of the present work dealing with essential oil analysis of germplasms collected from different regions would have enough significance.

AbstractSurface sterilized dormant axillary buds of rhizome of Curcuma aromaticaSalisb., were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) with benzyladenine (BA), kinetin (KIN), indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), indole-3-butyric acid (IBA), naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and adenine sulphate (Ads) in different concentrations and combinations. Activation of explants occurred after 25 days of culture. The highest shoot numbers per explant ((7.4±0.3) was recorded on medium with 1 mg/l of BA and 0.5 mg/l of KIN. The maximum leaf biomass production was on 3 mg/l of BA and 0.5 mg/l of IAA (12.1±0.3 gm per plant). Similarly, the rooting was also observed maximum per plant (5.1±0.5) on 1 mg/l of BA and 0.5 mg/l of IBA. Two months old plantlets were transferred to fresh MS basal media for further growth. The micro propagated plants were acclimatized in greenhouse and after six months their survival rate were recorded as 95 % respectively. The genetic stability and fidelity of micropropagated plants was assessed through analysis of inter simple sequence repeats as compared to the mother plant. Nine ISSR primers produced a total number of 3350 bands and all were monomorphic. No variations among the micropropagated plants were recorded for two generations. The high antioxidant since present in the leaves of this plant enables us to produce more number of leaf biomass to meet the demand of aromatic leaf essential oil. Thus the process can be used for conservation and mass propagation of true-to-type Curcuma aromatica.

AbstractThe essential oil of Thymus vulgarisis extensively used in the food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetic and fragrance industries. The present work was carried out to analyse the chemical constituents of T. vulgarisleaf essential oil of Western Himalayan (India) origin and study its antimicrobial, antioxidant and cytotoxic potential. The analysis of the essential oil through GC-MS led to the identification of a total of 27 compounds representing 99.11 % of the total oil showing carvacrol (45.53 %) as the predominant constituent followed by o-cymene (11.29 %), linalool (9.60 %), diethyl phthalate (8.48 %) and thymol (6.12 %). The antioxidant study of the essential oil through DPPH and FRAP assay exhibited IC50value and EC50value as 1.71±0.02 and 1.032 ± 0.01 μg/ml respectively. Essential oil revealed strong antibacterial activity against nine food spoiling pathogenic bacteria with MIC values ranging from 0.02 to 1.56 μg/ml. Cytotoxic study of essential oil revealed moderate cytotoxic activity as evaluated by MTT assay with IC50value of 135.46 and 98.59 μg/mL respectively for HepG-2 and PC-3 cancerous cell lines. The present paper with confirmatory evidence of significant bioactivity of carvacrol-rich leaf essential oil of T. vulgarisfrom India ascertained its therapeutic value for health benefits.

AbstractPlumeria alba(Family: Apocynaceae), commonly known as temple tree/white frangipani is an ornamental, deciduous, tropical plant grown in landscape places, gardens, parks, and home premises for its beautiful and fragrant flowers. The different parts of white frangipani are traditionally used for the treatment of several diseases. This study was executed to identify the volatile constituents of the flower essential oil of P. albafrom India, as this has not been studied to date. The essential oil composition was investigated through GC/MS analysis. The isolation of essential oil through the hydrodistillation method produced a yield of 0.05±0.01 %. A total of 46 volatile constituents were identified, representing 98.11±0.5 % of the total essential oil. The essential oil was rich in esters comprising 48.61±0.3 % of the essential oil followed by oxygenated monoterpene (15.41±0.1 %), oxygenated sesquiterpene (10.43±0.08 %) and sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (10.39±0.1 %), etc. The dominant components of the essential oil were benzyl salicylate (33.98±0.04 %), benzyl benzoate (12.37±0.03 %), germacrene B (10.30±0.05 %), and linalool (8.17±0.11 %). Other notable constituents identified in the essential oil were (2Z,6Z)-farnesol, n-heneicosane, n-nonadecane, (Z, E)-geranyl linalool, trans-sabinene hydrate acetate, (2E,6Z)-farnesol, α-terpineol, n-docosane, geranyl benzoate, n-tricosane, α-bisabolol, nerol and 8-cedren-13-ol, etc. (1.17 % - 4.76 %).

AbstractSeveral species of Cryptocarya(Lauraceae) are traditionally used in folk medicines for the treatment of various diseases and disorders in tropical and subtropical countries. The essential oil extracted from the leaves and barks of Cryptocaryaspecies are reported to possess antimicrobial, insecticidal, antioxidant, and antitumoral activities. However, there are no scientific reports on the biological activity of essential oil extracted from the tropical Asiatic species Cryptocarya amygdalina. The present study was undertaken to determine the chemical composition and evaluate the antioxidant, anticancer, and anti-inflammatory activities of bark essential oil of C. amygdalina. A total of 57 constituents accounting for 99.05 % of the total essential oil content were identified by GC/MS. The bark essential oil was dominated by sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (78.71 %) with β- caryophyllene (34.77 %), α-copaene (14.26 %), bicyclogermacrene (7.65 %), and δ-cadinene (4.42 %) as the major constituents. The essential oil exhibited good radical scavenging activity against DPPH, ABTS, and Reducing power assay with half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values of 6.97 ± 0.24, 1.28 ± 0.07, and 9.23 ± 0.34 μg/mL, respectively compared to ascorbic acid and BHT. The Pearson’s coefficient analysis showed a significant correlation between TPC, TFC, and an antioxidant assay of C. amygdalinaessential oil. The essential oil also showed potent cytotoxicity against human colon (HCT-116) and ovarian (PA-1) cancer cell lines with IC50values lesser than 50 μg/mL in both cases. Besides, this bark essential oil at 50 μg/mL concentration exhibited significant anti-inflammatory activity in lipopolysaccharide-activated RAW 264.7 macrophages by inhibiting nitric oxide production.

AbstractAlpinia galangais commonly known as ‘greater galangal’ is extensively present across India and Southeast Asia. The essential oil of this zingiberaceae species has high demand in the global market as it has a practice in flavoring food throughout Southeast Asia. The essential oil is also used in spa and perfumery. Rhizome essential oil of A. galanga(AGEO) possesses the myriad therapeutic potential and has more yield than leaf essential oil. However, there are no studies available on the anti-microbial activity of nano-emulsified essential oil of A. galanga(AGNO). Thus, in this current study, AGNO was formulated via low energy emulsification method by using tween 20 and isopropanol as surfactant and co-surfactant respectively with water as solvent. Characterization and validation of nano emulsified oil were done by Litesizer 500 which showed its size less than 100 nm. AGNO exhibited enhanced antimicrobial activity (MIC) against different microbial pathogens like Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Aspergillus niger, and Fusarium oxysporumwhen compared with control (AGEO). It has been concluded from antimicrobial activity that nano emulsified essential oil possesses the highest inhibitory activity against Staphylococcus aureus(0.2 μl/ml). The antioxidant ability of the AGEO and AGNO was also compared by using DPPH free radical scavenging assay. The nano emulsified essential oil possessed significantly higher antioxidant activity (IC50-9 μg/ml) as compared to the normal essential oil (IC50-19 μg/ml). Thus, we conclude that the essential oil-based nanoemulsion of A. galangacan be used as an antioxidant and antimicrobial agent in pharmaceutical industries.

AbstractThe chemical composition, antioxidant, cytotoxicity and anti-inflammatory activities of leaf essential oil of Syzygium myrtifoliumWalp. was evaluated in the present study. A total of 43 constituents representing 96.99 % of the total essential oil were identified by GC/MS analysis. The leaf essential oil was mainly characterized by sesquiterpene incorporate alcohols (34.99 %) with δ-cadinol (29.53 %), caryophyllene oxide (26.25 %) and cyclocolorenone (7.7 %) as the major constituents. The antioxidant activity of the leaf essential oil against DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) and ABTS (2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)) assays showed IC50values of 215 ± 4.61 and 116 ± 2.37 μg/mL respectively. In vitrocytotoxic effect of the essential oil evaluated against HCT-116 and Pa-1 cell lines by MTT [3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazolyl-2)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide] assay showed IC50values of 59.9 and 47.5 μg/mL respectively. Further, the leaf essential oil at a concentration of 25 μg/mL was found to exhibit potential anti-inflammatory activity in lipopolysaccharide-activated RAW 264.7 macrophages by inhibiting nitric oxide (NO) production. The findings of the present study revealed that the leaf essential oil of S. myrtifoliumis a rich source of bioactive constituents, which needs further investigation as leads for anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer drug discovery.

AbstractElettaria cardamomum(L.) Maton (Zingiberaceae), commonly known as green or true cardamom, is a commercially important species, the seeds of which are extensively used in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries. In spite of the increasing demand for cardamom essential oil in the international market, the chemical profiling of volatile compounds of different plant parts are not well explored. Though there are a few studies on the chemical characteristics of its leaf oil from other phytogeographical regions, the presence and chemical composition of essential oil from stems have not yet been reported. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to characterize the chemical composition and antioxidant activity of leaf and stem essential oil of E. cardamomum.The essential oil extracted by hydro-distillation from the leaf and stem revealed the presence of 43 and 37 compounds, representing 92.71 % and 92.12 % of total oil respectively by GC/MS analysis. The major constituents of the leaf essential oil were 1,8-cineole (20.66 %), camphene (18.09 %), camphor (10.02 %) and tricyclene (7.36 %); whereas α-terpinyl acetate (19.75 %), 1,8-cineole (10.38 %), caryophyllene oxide (7.13 %) and β-eudesmol (4.85 %) were rich in the stem essential oil. Oxygenated monoterpenes were the major terpenic fraction in the leaf and stem essential oil of E. cardamomum. The free radical scavenging ability assessed by DPPH (2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) and ABTS (2, 2-azinobis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) assay showed that leaf oil had better activities as compared to stem oil. The present findings demonstrated that E. cardamomumgrowing wild in Eastern India could be considered as an important bioresource and natural antioxidant.

Turmeric is an important medicinal plant possessing valuable secondary metabolites. The present study was conducted for evaluating the effect of environmental parameters on quality of essential oil from leaf and rhizome of ‘Lakadong’ turmeric cultivar. Five different agroclimatic regions of Odisha were selected for this study. The GC–MS analysis revealed significant differences in the abundance of constituents by means of area percentage as well as in essential oil yield. The area percentage of alpha phellandrene in leaf varied from 31.78 to 39.89%, while the ar-turmerone content in rhizome varied from 36.18 to 44.36% across the agroclimatic regions. However, no study has been done about the sensitive environmental factors responsible for these variations with respect to location. Thus, in the present study, relative sensitivity analysis has been carried out which revealed that temperature, humidity and altitude are most important factors for enhancing the quality and yield of leaf and rhizome essential oil. The present investigation will help in selection of suitable areas of cultivation for increasing the essential oil yield with quality in Lakadong cultivar.

AbstractZingiber zerumbet(L.) Roscoe ex Sm. (family-Zingiberaceae) is an important medicinal herb. Though rhizome extract of this species has been used in traditional herbal medicine across the globe for the treatment of numerous diseases like worms, cough, leprosy, asthma and other skin diseases, the composition of the extract is not characterised properly till date. Thus, acetone extract of Zingiber zerumbetrhizome was subjected to Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) to analyze the phytoconstituents. A total of nine compounds were obtained out of which zerumbone was found to be the major constituent covering 64.58 % of the total area. Beside zerumbone, other important compounds like diacetone alcohol (10.64 %), α-humulene (8.93 %), caryophyllene oxide (5.68 %), humulene epoxide (3.18 %), Eudesm-7(11)-en-4-ol (2.87 %), aromadendrene oxide (1.98 %) were also found in the tested extract with some other compounds in trace amount. Among the compounds, terpenes were found to be the primary constituent of the extract. This finding revealed the presence of the high amount of terpenes in the rhizome of Z. zerumbetfor the first time. The study indicated that Z. zerumbetis a good source of sesquiterpenes and oxygenated sesquiterpenes which can be used at industrial level for the production of pharmaceuticals, perfumes and flavouring agents.

AbstractEclipta prostrata(Linn.) (Family: Asteraceae) is an important Indian medicinal herb having myriad therapeutic potential. In the present study, the essential oil was extracted from the aerial parts of E. prostratacollected from 10 different regions of Odisha by hydro-distillation and analyzed by using one- dimensional gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Fifty nine volatile compounds comprising 68.84-96.58% of the total oil were identified. Sesquiterpene hydrocarbons were the predominant group of compounds which varied from 26.84-62.67% followed by monoterpene hydrocarbons (28.93-38.66%). The E. prostrataoils were rich in α-pinene (11.2 - 18.23%) followed by caryophyllene (8.56 - 15.38%), α- humulene (1.8-11.1%), α-pinene (2.6 - 8.72%), camphene (2.6 - 8.5%), allo-aromadendrene (2.5 - 6.99%), α-amorphene (0.3 - 7.8%), cis-muurole-4(14),5-diene (1.2 - 5.7%), eugenol (2.13 - 4.1%) followed by other minor compounds. The major constituents of all the studied germplasms displayed the same major compounds in their essential oil with varying area percentage. Hence, with having these well known bioactive phytoconstituents, the essential oil of E. prostratawould have enough significance in the food and pharmaceutical industries.

In this present study antimicrobial activity of 15 promising cultivars of lemongrass were compared against 10 pathogenic microorganisms. Essential oil extracted from fresh leaves showed a distinctive variation in its oil percentage, citral content as well as antibacterial and antifungal potential against six bacterial and four fungal isolates. Direct correlation between citral content, a major constituent of the essential oil of lemongrass cultivars could not be established with their antimicrobial activity indices. MIC against Escherichia coli by plate dilution method was found to be very low (250[micro]g/ml). Inhibition zone diameter study of essential oils showed higher range of inter-specific variation within the cultivars. The cultivar OD19 with highest antibacterial index (AbI) 27.2 has the best potential to prevent bacterial growth, followed by Pragati and SD68 with AbI 24.66 and 24.02. RRL (B) 27 has got the lowest AbI of 11.4, thus found to be highly susceptible to majority of test bacteria. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the most sensitive bacteria to lemongrass oil having Inhibition zone diameter (IZD) [greater than or equal to] 90mm irrespective of type of cultivar. Similarly all 4 fungal test strains used in this study were found to be highly sensitive to this essential oil showing no visual growth in the Petri dish. Under these experimental conditions, the inter-specific variations in anti bacterial potential of all fifteen distinct promising cultivars are more clearly evident but all genotypes possesses exceptionally good anti fungal property. Keywords: Lemongrass cultivars | Antimicrobial property | Essential oil | Antimicrobial Activity Index | Citral content, Abbreviations AI- Antimicrobial Activity Index [A.sub.b]I -Antibacterial Activity Index [A.sub.f]I.- Antifungal Activity Index MIC-Minimum inhibitory concentration IZD-Inhibition zone diameter Introduction Lemongrass (Cymbopogon flexuosus Nees ex. Steud Wats) a perennial grass [...]