Traditional Practice for Oral Health Care in Nandurbar District of Maharashtra, India

An ethnobotanical study was conducted from January 2006 to October 2008 to investigate the uses of medicinal plants for oral health care by different aborigines, such as Bhills, Gavits, Kokanis, Mavachis, Valvis, Pawras, Koknas and Vasaves, in the Nandurbar district of Maharashtra, India. Data were collected by interviewing native people, mainly elderly – engaged in farming and stock rising activities, housewives and local traditional medicinemen of different villages. The investigation revealed that a total 20 claims were obtained as distributed in 18 genera belonging to 14 families to treat various diseases and disorders of oral cavity, particularly in tooth decay. Information about local names, plant parts and different form of preparation used were recorded and are focused in given issue. In this study most commonly used family was Euphorbiaceae followed by Moraceae, Anacardiaceae, Fabaceae, Asteraceae, Acanthaceae, Meliaceae, Asclepiadaceae, Poaceae, Lythraceae, Sapotaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Rutaceae and Solanaceae. Present study indicated many tribal communities of visited villages of Nandurbar district still continue to depend on plant resources to meet their day-to-day needs and use plant based formulations from generation to generation for treatment of health related problems. Now, the tribal societies are progressing towards modernization; their knowledge of traditional use of plants might be lost. Therefore conservation of such heritage is warranted

Isolation Of Docosahexaenoid Acid From Fish Oil And Its Validation By Gas Chromatography

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) was isolated from fish oil and identified by gas chromatography. The isolation of DHAwas carried out by the column chromatography. The preparation of column using silica gel 60-120 mesh and elution ofcolumn with different solvent in increasing order of polarity was done. Isolated fractions were subjected to identification test for DHA by thin layer chromatography using solvent benzene. Determination of isolated DHA was carried out by gas chromatography using reagent hexane as a solvent. The chromatogram of isolated DHA and standard DHA were compared. It was showed that in thin layer chromatography the fraction 51-58 and 72-85 showed single spot in benzene mobile phase having Rf value 0.56 when compared with standard DHA which matched with Rf Value of standard DHA. The retention time of isolated DHA and standard DHA by gas chromatography were 5.73 and 5.01 respectively. Isolated DHA showed 95.21 percentage purity. It was observed that fish oil was used as precursor of DHA and the developed method of column chromatographic isolation of DHA and its validation by GC is simple, accurate and precise

Natural Iron Chelators as Potential Therapeutic Agents for the Treatment of Iron Overload Diseases

Iron overload disease is a group of heterogeneous disease, which is caused either due to hereditary or acquired condition. Excess of iron participate in redox reactions that catalyzes the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and increases oxidative stress, which causes cellular damage and encourage the cell injury and cell death. The electronic databases of Scopus, PubMed and Google Scholar have been intensively searched for the research as well as review articles published with the full text available and with the key words such as natural iron chelating agent, synthetic iron chelating agents, iron overload disease, oxidative stress and antioxidant which were appearing in the title, abstract or keywords. In light of the literature review presented in this artial, based on meta-analyses, we suggest that iron chelating agents were used for the management of iron overload disease. These agents were having wide spectrum of activity, they were not only used for the management of iron overload disease but also used as anticancer and antioxidant in various oxidative stress mediated diseases. Last from many years Desferoxamine (DFO) was used as standard iron chelator but currently two new synthetic iron chelators such as Deferiprone (DFP) and Deferasirox (DFS) are available clinically. These clinically available synthetic iron chelators were having serious side effects and certain limitations. Phytochemicals such as flavonoids and polyphenols compounds were having iron chelating as well as antioxidant property with no or minimal side effects. Hence, this review provides an updates on natural iron chelation therapy for the safe and efficacious management of iron overload diseases

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

Response of PGPR and AM fungi toward growth and secondary metabolite production in medicinal and aromatic plants

Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPRs) are a group of naturally occurring beneficial soil bacteria that colonize with the plant root system and promote growth by triggering the production of growth-regulating substances and facilitate the plants in the uptake of essential nutrients from the surrounding environments. Similarly, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi also enhanced the growth, water and nutrient uptake, and especially available phosphate through their specialized hyphae. In addition, PGPR and AM fungi are known to stimulate the accumulation of secondary metabolites in plants. For several years, they are commonly employed to increase the plant yield and productivity especially in agricultural practices. The medicinal and aromatic plants are gaining popularity worldwide due to high therapeutic properties with negligible toxic side effects. To fulfill the global demand and supply gap for medicinal and aromatic plants and their products, farmers are encouraged to cultivate these plants on a large scale. However, there is a need to understand and implement a better cultivation practices in order to improve the quality of medicinal and aromatic plants. In this regard, the utilization of PGPRs and AM fungi as biofertilizers instead of chemical fertilizers could be a promising approach to the development of medicinal and aromatic plants under the sustainable production system. The aim of this chapter is to describe the potentiality of PGPRs and AM fungi to improve growth and development of medicinal and aromatic plants and accumulation of secondary metabolites having high therapeutic worth and also pave a way in the development of new biotechnological products as biofertilizers