Drying studies of patchouli spent charge – in special reference to its use in incense sticks production

The Patchouli (Pogostemon cablin Benth.) herbaceous medicinal plant is a member of the Lamiaceae family, and is grown for its essential oil extraction.  Aromatic patchouli herbage after steam distillation of essential oil is currently a waste material that can be advantageously used in incense sticks production if dried and powdered to a suitable particle size.  To use this waste spent charge (herbage after steam distillation) in the incense sticks production, drying study of this wet material was conducted.  The drying characteristics of patchouli spent charge were studied under various methods, namely, tray, shade and sun drying.  The initial drying bed thickness was uniformly maintained at 50 mm in all the methods and the spent charge was dried from 60%(wb) initial moisture to 8-9% final moisture.  Under Bangalore climatic conditions (24.4-28°C; 25%-58% RH), patchouli spent charge required 46 h of drying time in shade while under sun, it took just 11 h of drying.  In a convectional electrical tray dryer, the drying time at 50, 60 and 70°C was 10, 6 and 5 h, respectively.   Keywords: Patchouli, spent charge, drying, drying characteristic

An Introduction to Patchouli (Pogostemon cablin Benth.) – A Medicinal and Aromatic Plant: It’s Importance to Mankind

Patchouli (Pogostemon cablin Benth.) is a plant from Lamiaceae family, well known for its medicinal and aromatic properties.  Patchouli is grown for its essential oil.  Patchouli essential oil is mainly obtained by steam distillation of the shade dried leaves.  It is widely appreciated for its characteristic pleasant and long lasting woody, earthy, camphoraceous odour.  It is especially notable as the essential oil extracted is internationally important and valuable, principally for the aromatherapy, perfumery, cosmetics, incense stick production and food flavouring industries.  This review attempted to give an overview of the relationship between aromatherapy and essential oils, importance of patchouli, harvesting pattern of patchouli, basics behind drying and steam distillation of patchouli crop, as well as trends existing in the various markets for essential oil application and its importance to mankind.   Keywords: patchouli, aromatherapy, drying, steam distillation, essential oil, application

Patchouli in fragrances-incense stick production from patchouli spent charge powder

 Incense sticks are popularly known as the fragrance ambassador of India.  The burning of incense in religious and social activities has been practiced in India since early times.  Patchouli is an aromatic and medicinal plant and is grown for its essential oil.  Patchouli essential oil has greater demand and finds extensive application in flavour, perfumery, cosmetic, food and beverage industry and pharmaceutical industries.  In our present study the residual essential oil content of patchouli spent charge was studied under various methods, i.e. shade, tray and sun drying, after steam distillation extraction of patchouli essential oil.  The residual essential oil content of shade dried spent charge was 0.5% - 0.7%.  So, the ground shade dried patchouli spent charge was used in incense sticks manufacture.  Ten different types of incense sticks were produced by blending the patchouli spent charge powder at various levels along with other traditional ingredients; and it made us clear that patchouli spent charge powder can replace wood powder up to 5% - 10% level which is currently used at 15% level.  Various physical quality parameters of different patchouli spent charge based incense sticks were studied which eventually indicated that incense sticks from spent charge powder were much acceptable at present scenario.  Keywords: patchouli, spent charge powder, wood powder, incense sticks 

IN VITRO ANTIOXIDANT AND CYTOTOXIC ACTIVITY OF ISOLATED COMPOUNDS ON ROOTS OF CLERODENDRUM PHLOMIDIS LINN

 Objective: The main aim of the study was to screen the isolated compounds of Clerodendrum phlomidis roots for its in vitro antioxidant and anticanceractivity and its efficacy against HeLa cell lines.Methods: Pet ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate and ethanol extracts was prepared and assayed for the presence of phytochemicals. Threecompounds were isolated from ethanol extract of C. phlomidis by column chromatography such as ET1 (phenyl acetic acid), ET2 (ethyl-2-hydroxy-4-methylbenzoate), ET3 (3,6,7-trihydroxy-2-(3-methoxyphenyl)-4H-chromen-4-one) characterized by IR (KBr), 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR), 13C-NMR and Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The above isolated compounds were subjected to in vitro antioxidant activity against2,2-diphenylpicrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical, superoxide radical scavenging assay and iron chelating activity. The effect of isolated compounds on HeLacancer cell line was also evaluated by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-Yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide colorimetric assay.Results: ET2 has good in vitro antioxidant activity against DPPH radical, super oxide radical and iron chelating activity with an inhibitory concentration50% value of 360 μg/ml, 150 μg/ml and 130 μg/ml respectively. ET1 showed significant cytotoxic activity than the other two compounds on HeLacells with a percentage cell growth of 21.9% and a growth inhibition of 50% value of 180 μg, respectively.Conclusion: On the basis of obtained results, ET1 and ET2 isolated from the ethanolic extract of C. phlomidis represent a new group of cytotoxicagainst HeLa cell line and antioxidant agents.Keywords: Column chromatography, Clerodendrum phlomidis, In vitro antioxidant activity, 2,2-diphenylpicrylhydrazyl, Cytotoxicity,3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-Yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay.Â

Grain storage losses in the traditional tribal settlements of Biligirirangana Hills, Karnataka, India

The forest dwelling tribal Soligas who reside at Biligirirangana Hills cultivate more than 30 different crops including pulses, cereals, millets and vegetable crops as a part of subsistence agriculture. They store more than 80% of their produce in their households for consumption. The present study examines the grain storage practices followed by Soligas and the extent of losses incurred by them, in a traditional agricultural setup. In all, 13 different storage structures used by Soligas were recorded. These included both traditional and modern structures. Among these, plastic oven sac was being used most widely, while Thenemane used for storing maize cobs was the least used structure by the Soligas. An evaluation of these storage structures for safe storage of grains revealed that, none of the traditional storage structures were found to be suitable for grain storage, as they had one or the other disadvantages like, not being moisture or insect or rodent proof. However, the modern structures like, the plastic bins were moisture and rodent proof, but they failed to provide protection against insects. Soligas adopted 10 different grain protection methods for safe storage of grains. Despite their use, the presence of insect infestation ranged from 32.14 to 56.41%. Callosobruchus theobromae was the most common stored grain insect found infesting fieldbean (Dolichos bean) that was stored in most of the settlements, while Tribolium castaneum was the rarest, found infesting only split pigeon pea (Cajanus cajana). The extent of grain damage ranged from 10 to 100% in the samples collected

Zinc(II)–thiosemicarbazone complexes are localized to the lysosomal compartment where they transmetallate with copper ions to induce cytotoxicity

As the di-2-pyridylketone thiosemicarbazone (DpT) and 2-acetylpyridine thiosemicarbazone (ApT) series show potent antitumor activity in vitro and in vivo, we synthesized their fluorescent zinc(II) complexes to assess their intracellular distribution. The Zn(II) complexes generally showed significantly greater cytotoxicity than the thiosemicarbazones alone in several tumor cell-types. Notably, specific structure–activity relationships demonstrated the importance of the di-2-pyridyl pharmacophore in their activity. Confocal fluorescence imaging and live cell microscopy showed that the Zn(II) complex of our lead compound, di-2-pyridylketone 4-cyclohexyl-4-methyl-3-thiosemicarbazone (DpC), which is scheduled to enter clinical trials, was localized to lysosomes. Under lysosomal conditions, the Zn(II) complexes were shown to transmetallate with copper ions, leading to redox-active copper complexes that induced lysosomal membrane permeabilization (LMP) and cytotoxicity. This is the first study to demonstrate direct lysosomal targeting of our novel Zn(II)–thiosemicarbazone complexes that mediate their activity via transmetalation with copper ions and LMP

Novel chelators based on adamantane-derived semicarbazones and hydrazones that target multiple hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by multiple pathological hallmarks, including β-amyloid aggregation, oxidative stress, and metal dys-homeostasis. In the absence of treatments addressing its multi-factorial pathology, we designed novel multi-functional adamantane-based semicarbazones and hydrazones (1-12) targeting AD hallmarks. Of these, 2-pyridinecarboxaldehyde (N-adamantan-1-yl)benzoyl-4-amidohydrazone (10) was identified as the lead compound, which demonstrated: (1) pronounced iron chelation efficacy; (2) attenuation of CuII-mediated β-amyloid aggregation; (3) low cytotoxicity; (4) inhibition of oxidative stress; and (5) favorable characteristics for effective blood-brain barrier permeation. Structure-activity relationships revealed that pyridine-derived hydrazones represent a promising pharmacophore for future design strategies due to their ability to bind critical FeII pools. Collectively, the unique multi-functional activity of these agents provides a novel therapeutic strategy for AD treatment