Medicinal values of aquatic plant genus Nymphoides grown in Asia: A review

Nymphoides is an aquatic genus consisting about 50 species, of which few were accepted as traditional medicinal plants in Asia. The literature review revealed that Nymphoides species are widely used in Ayurvedic medicine as a popular drug, i.e. Tagara. They are also utilized by the traditional local healers of different Asian countries to treat various diseases, like convulsion, jaundice, fever, headache, etc. According to the in vivo and in vitro pharmacological studies, Nymphoides species have been claimed to possess major biological activities like anticonvulsant, antioxidant, hepatoprotective, cytotoxic, antitumor, etc. Biochemical profiling of different aquatic plants of this genus revealed the presence of some important phytochemicals as polyphenolic component, flavonoids, triterpenes, carbohydrates, glycosides, etc. Several valuable bioactive compounds including ephedrine, coumarin, secoiridoid glucosides, methyl quercetin, ferulic acid, foliamenthoic acid, etc. were also known to be isolated and identified from different Nymphoides species. The aim of this review is to analyze the published report based on the medicinal values of different Asian Nymphoides species, to provide the updated information about the ethnomedicinal, pharmacological as well as the phytochemical properties for the first time.

Toxicological evaluation of the root and stem bark extracts of madhuca indica

This research work was conducted with the root and stem bark of Madhuca indica to find out their toxicological properties employing Brine Shrimp Lethality Bioassay. It was found that the root and stem extracts of the plant contained some constituents that were toxic for the Brine Shrimp Nauplii. The ether and alcohol extracts may have cytotoxic properties as well as other pharmacological activities but the ethyl acetate extracts showed mild activity. The results were discussed with reference to the indication of using the plant extracts as anti-mutagenic agent and appeared to be well-supported by their chemical constituents

In vitro studies on antibacterial property of the root and stem bark extracts of oroxylum indicum

The antimicrobial properties of the bark extracts of Oroxylum indicum was investigated using agar diffusion method. In this study, eight pathogenic bacteria namely: Staphylococcus aureus. Streptococcus pyogenes, Vibrio cholerae. Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli, Bacillus cereus, Shigella dysenteriae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and one fungus, Candida albicans were selected. The ether extracts [EE] and alcohol extracts [AE] were found to be active against almost all of the bacteria and fungus tested. The ethyl acetate extract [EaE] of the root bark showed antimicrobial activity against four micro-organisms viz. Candida albicans, Shigella dysenteriae, Bacillus cereus and Streptococcus pyogenes but that of stem bark showed no activity against any of the micro-organisms. All the activities were compared by measuring the zone of inhibition with the standard antibiotic