Evaluation of antioxidant potential and HPLC based identification of phenolics in Polygonum amplexicaule extract and its fractions

There is a growing interest for the plant-based medicines in pharmaceutical industry. Plant derived Antioxidants have gained huge importance regarding their medicinal value. The present study was designed to establish pharmaceutical value of Polygonum amplexicaule for their antioxidant activity using shoot, leaf and rhizome crude methanolic extract along with their n-butanolic, ethanolic, ethyl acetate and aqueous fractions. DPPH assay was used to assess antioxidants, which shows the maximum activity by crude methanolic extract of leaves [CMEL] having IC[50] 1.03 [micro]g/mL where all other fractions showed IC[50] in a range of 1.03-58.2 [micro]g/mL. The DNA plasmid protection assay showed that 10 ppm and 100 ppm concentrations of crude methanolic extracts [rhizome and leaf], aqueous fractions [shoot and leaf extract], n-butanolic fractions [shoot and leaf extract] and ethanolic fraction [rhizome extract] have DNA protection properties. TLC and HPLC based Identification of different antioxidants present in shoot, leaf and rhizome crude extracts and their fractions showed the presence of gallic acid, quercetin, catechin, caffeic acid, rutin, myricetin and kaempferol. This study suggested that this plant have high content of antioxidants, which needs to be investigated further for their medicinal and/ cosmaceutical applications

Palynological study of wild plant species of University of Arid Agriculture Rawalpindi, Pakistan

The palynological stud of ten wild plant species of L niversity of Arid Agriculture, Raw alpindi [UAAR] was carried during 2003-04, The study was confined to the pollen fertility investigation and morphological characteristics of pollens. It was revealed by microscopic observation that pollen fertility of selected species ranged from 98-100%. The pollen grains of almost all selected wild species were circular in shape. The size of the pollen grains was variable from species to species. Palynological results were found to be a good taxonomic character among these wild species upto family and genus. These information on the pollen grains were useful for future research and serve as a tool for the reconstruction of past vegetation and environment