Oral glucose tolerance test [OGTT] in normal control and glucose induced hyperglycemic rats with Coccinia Cordifolia L. and Catharanthus roseus L

The aim of this study is to investigate the hypoglycemic effects of petroleum ether, chloroform and ethyl acetate fractions isolated from ethanolic extracts of Coccinia cordifolia and Catharanthus roseus on normal control and orally glucose-induced hyperglycemic rats. Single doses [150 mg/kg] of different fractions of C. cordifolia and C. roseus extracts were intraperitonelly administered. The serum blood glucose level was obtained by pricking the tail vein using glucometer at time 0, 30, 60, 90, 150 and 270 minutes.In the orally glucose induced hyperglycemic rats, chloroform-coccinia [CHCl[3]-CC] fraction showed maximum reduction of blood glucose level by 21.94% on 60 minute of the experiment. On the other hand maximum reduction [p<0.05] of 17.92% was observed for petroleum ether-catharanthus [PET-CR] on 30 minute of the experiment. Metformin HCl was used as standard drug.Our results indicate that the CHCl[3]-CC fraction is relatively more potent than other fractions of C. cordifolia. Similarly the PET-CR is found to be better than other fractions of catharanthus. Phytochemical screening test results showed that chloroform fraction of C. cordifolia contain saponins and flavonoids compounds, which are known to be hypoglycemic. On the other hand petroleum ether fraction of C. roseus contains tannins, flavonoids and alkaloid compounds produced varying degree of blood sugar reduction. On the pharmacological point of view C. cordifolia and C. roseus appears to be a valuable plant, which can be useful, at least as an adjunct, in the therapy of diabetes

Isolation of poly (A)+ mRNA for downstream reactions from some medicinal and aromatic plants.

In the present protocol for extraction of RNA, hexadecyltrimethylammoniumbromide (CTAB) and insoluble polyvinylpyrrolidone were used followed by LiCl precipitation, CsCl ultracentrifugation and finally poly (A)+ mRNA was isolated with the help of oligo(dT)-cellulose columns. The isolated poly (A)+ mRNA was found to be suitable for cDNA-AFLP and suppression subtractive hybridization applications. It is a modified and consolidated protocol based on previously described methods for isolated steps and works better for medicinal and aromatic plants. High yield of poly (A)+ mRNA coupled with its amenability for downstream reactions like RT-PCR, northern blotting and cDNA synthesis for library construction is a key feature of the present protocol.