Traditional use of medicinal plants by the Jaintia tribes in North Cachar Hills district of Assam, northeast India

The study of ethnobotany relating to any tribe is in itself a very intricate or convoluted process. This paper documents the traditional knowledge of medicinal plants that are in use by the indigenous Jaintia tribes residing in few isolated pockets of northeast India. The present study was done through structured questionnaires in consultations with the tribal practitioners and has resulted in the documentation of 39 medicinal plant species belonging to 27 families and 35 genera. For curing diverse form of ailments, the use of aboveground plant parts was higher (76.59%) than the underground plant parts (23.41%). Of the aboveground plant parts, leaf was used in the majority of cases (23 species), followed by fruit (4). Different underground plant forms such as root, tuber, rhizome, bulb and pseudo-bulb were also found to be in use by the Jaintia tribe as a medicine. Altogether, 30 types of ailments have been reported to be cured by using these 39 medicinal plant species. The study thus underlines the potentials of the ethnobotanical research and the need for the documentation of traditional ecological knowledge pertaining to the medicinal plant utilization for the greater benefit of mankind

Biocontrol of Pythium aphanidermatum causing soft rot in ginger with biosurfactant produced by a rhizospheric Bacillus species: Biocontrol of Pythium aphanidermatum with biosurfactant

Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria benefit plants by producing phytohormones and acquiring vital nutrients from soil. They also form a shield against potential phytopathogens with the production of antimicrobial compounds such as bacteriocin, biosurfactants etc. In the present study, among various rhizobacteria isolated from ginger rhizosphere, the isolate identified as Bacillus altitudinis VS7 that showed a potent biosurfactant producing ability in the preliminary tests was selected for the further study. Compositional analyses indicated that the biosurfactant produced by VS7 was a surfactin like compound, a cyclic lipopeptide. In both microtitre plate and mycelium growth inhibition studies, the biosurfactant showed dose dependent antagonistic activities against Pythium aphanidermatum that causes soft rot in ginger. Although there are reports of biocontrol activity of various rhizobacteria against soft rot in ginger, this is the firstinformation regarding biocontrol activity of a biosurfactant produced by the rhizobacterium B. altitudinis VS7 against P. aphanidermatum

Pattern of traditional medicine usage in East Khasi Hills of Meghalaya

164-170The present paper reports the usage trend of traditional medicine among the indigenous Khasi population of East Khasi Hills district, Meghalaya. The study recorded a high percentage of usage of herbal home remedies for common and minor ailments. Between the C & RD blocks, there is some difference with respect to usage. Further, for all three blocks studied distance and literacy did not influence usage of herbal medicine. A highly significant difference (p< 0.01) was observed on the frequencies of herbal medicine consultation per year, by the respondents. A large majority of the respondent shows duality vis-à-vis allopathic versus local health practices. Allopathy comes into play when home remedies fails. The difference in the preferences of respondents between these two systems of medicine is significant at p<0.01. Amongst the different population categories consulting the LHPs, adults record the maximum number, in all the three C & RD blocks. The difference between the three population categories is significantly high (p<0.01) in Mylliem block whereas the difference are insignificant (p>0.01) in Mawkynrew and Shella-Bholaganj blocks

Plantlet regeneration via adventitious shoot bud proliferation from leaf explants in <i style="">Potentilla fulgens</i> Wall. ex Hook.—A plant possessing hypoglycemic activity

257-260A method for adventitious shoot bud regeneration from leaves of Potentilla fulgens has been developed. Leaves were obtained from plants growing in the natural habitat. Explant browning, a major hurdle in the establishment of cultures, was overcome by treating leaves with a combination of antioxidants (100 mg l-1 ascorbic acid, 100 mg l-1 citric acid and 20 mg l-1 L-cysteine HCl). Influence of the growth regulators BAP (6-benzylaminopurine) and NAA ( -naphthaleneacetic acid) on adventitious bud differentiation and shoot regeneration was observed on modified Murashige and Skoog’s (MMS) agar medium. The most effective treatment was MMS with 0.1 mg l-1 BAP and 0.1 mg l-1 NAA, which gave 80% bud induction frequency with 38.4 BFC (Bud Forming Capacity) index and 48 shoots per explant of 3.5 cm length. Rooting was induced on MS basal medium. The regenerated plants had 70% survival rate

Potentilla fulgens (Family Rosaceae), a medicinal plant of north-east India: a natural anthelmintic?

The cestode parasite, Raillietina echinobothrida and the trematode, Gastrothylax crumenifer were exposed to the ethanolic root peel extract of Potentilla fulgens, an antiparasitic local medicinal plant of Meghalaya, India, to evaluate the anthelmintic efficacy of the plant. The parasites were incubated in 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 mg crude alcoholic extract per ml of phosphate buffered saline (PBS) at a temperature of 37 ± 1°C. Paralysis and death were observed at 2.00 ± 0.05 and 2.80 ± 0.06 h for the cestode and 1.21 ± 0.06 and 2.18 ± 0.04 h for the trematode parasites at the highest test concentration of the plant extract. The commercial anthelmintic, Praziquantel (PZQ) showed higher activity at the tested concentration (0.02 mg/ml). To further investigate the efficacy of the plant extract, vital tegumental enzymes of the parasite viz. Acid phosphatase (AcPase), Alkaline phosphatase (AlkPase) and Adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) were studied. Quantitatively, the total enzyme activity of AcPase, AlkPase and ATPase was found to be reduced significantly by 69.20, 66.43 and 29.63% for R. echinobothrida and 47.96, 51.79 and 42.63% for G. crumenifer, respectively compared to the respective controls; histochemical study also showed reduction in the visible staining of the enzymes. The reference drug, PZQ also showed more or less similar effect like that of the plant extract. The result suggests that phytochemicals of P. fulgens have anthelmintic potential