NOPR Collection:

An ethnobotanical survey of antidiabetic medicinal plants used by the Bodo tribe of Kokrajhar district, Assam

Mon, 01 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Title: An ethnobotanical survey of antidiabetic medicinal plants used by the Bodo tribe of Kokrajhar district, Assam Authors: Daimari, Manita; Roy, Mritunjoy Kumar; Swargiary, Ananta; Baruah, Sanjib; Basumatary, Sanswrang Abstract: Diabetes mellitus (DM) belongs to the group of diseases causing major health problems in India and world at large. Natural products including medicinal plants are known to treat various diseases worldwide since ancient times. It is well known that plants are a great source of bioactive compounds having tremendous medicinal properties and can be used to discover plant-based drugs with lesser side effects. A survey was carried out among the Bodo community of Kokrajhar district of Assam to explore the traditional knowledge on medicinal plants against diabetes using semi-structured interviews among the local healers and elderly people. A total of 54 informants were interviewed in a face-to-face manner following readymade questionnaire, of which 15 healers were known to have knowledge regarding antidiabetic medicinal plants. A total of 37 medicinal plants, belonging to 24 families and 33 genera were found to be used by traditional healers of Kokrajhar district to cure diabetes. The mostly cited plant was found to be Hodgsonia heteroclita (Roxb.) followed by Andrographis paniculata (Burm. f.) Nees. Out of the 24 families, Apocynaceae was found to be the most popular plant family with four numbers of plants. Page(s): 421-429

Role of naturopathy on physical and biochemical parameters in patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus

Mon, 01 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Title: Role of naturopathy on physical and biochemical parameters in patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus Authors: Chawla, Ranjna; Nair, Rukamani; Sood, V R; Mukherjee, Somnath; Arora, Anshu Abstract: Study was aimed to evaluate the effect of four months of naturopathy on diabetes, symptom score, physical parameters, biochemical parameters and oxidative stress in patients suffering from Type 2 diabetes (T2D). Total of 121 diabetic patients were enrolled. Treatment group included 60 patients taking naturopathy including abdomen mudpack, spinal cord massage and cold hip bath (CHB). Parameters recorded were glycemic status (plasma fasting and PP) oxidative stress (Glutathione peroxidase and Total Antioxidant Capacity {TAC}) and symptom score (urination, visual symptoms, fatigue, drowsiness, hunger, Thirst). With naturopathy a significant reduction in sugar levels in Fasting (p<0.001), PP (p<0.01), HbA1c (p<0.001) was observed. Improvement in physical parameters and symptom score in diabetic patients was also observed. Urination frequency, visual symptoms, fatigue, drowsiness, hunger and thirst severity were found to be more normal in intervention group as compared to control group. There was a simultaneous improvement in parameters of oxidative stress. TAC value showed significant increase in both paired and non paired groups (p<0.05). Glutathione peroxidase levels showed increase only in paired group (p<0.01). Results of our study suggest that naturopathy can be considered as effective treatment modality in overall well-being of patients with T2D. Page(s): 430-438

Genetic architecture and population structure of Oat Landraces (Avena sativa L.) using molecular and morphological descriptors

Mon, 01 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Title: Genetic architecture and population structure of Oat Landraces (Avena sativa L.) using molecular and morphological descriptors Authors: Rana, Maneet; Gupta, Sonam; Kumar, Neeraj; Ranjan, Rajeev; Sah, RP; Gajghate, Rahul; Dwivedi, KK; Ahmed, S Abstract: Oat is grown as winter forage in India. It is a self-pollinated crop with less variability. However, the variation for different morphological traits in oat germplasm may be available at genotypic level. The present study was conducted to find out the genetic diversity among 24 oat landraces using 9 morphological traits and 24 SSR primers. Morphological data observed across the 24 landraces showed wide variation and grouped various landraces into two clusters. GFY and DMY were positively and significantly correlated with most of the traits studied. The molecular analysis using 24 SSR primers resulted amplification of 62 polymorphic alleles with an average of 2.58 alleles per primer. Size of amplified alleles ranged from 70 to 480 bp. Mean polymorphic information content was 0.42 showing moderate level of SSR polymorphism. Cluster analysis based on SSR data differentiated 24 oat landraces into three major clusters. Bayesian model-based STRUCTURE analysis assigned landraces into two clusters and showed the extent of admixture within individuals. Clustering pattern of oat landraces based on SSR marker profiles were different from that of morphometric traits. So, based on the pooled analysis at morphological and molecular level, the landraces IG-02-121, IG-02-129 and IG-02-113 were found superior for morphological traits as well as most distant among all the landraces under study. Hence, these landraces could be used in for future breeding programmes for genetic improvement in oats. Page(s): 439-450

Immunosuppressive and anti-cancer potential of aqueous extract of Solanum Xanthocarpum

Mon, 01 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Title: Immunosuppressive and anti-cancer potential of aqueous extract of Solanum Xanthocarpum Authors: Choudhary, Pradeep Kumar; Khandelwal, Vishal; Gupta, Saurabh; Chaubey, Kundan Kumar; Singh, Shoor Vir; Goel, Anjana; Bhatia, AK Abstract: In this study whole plant aqueous extract of Solanum Xanthocarpum (HAESX) was investigated to assess its effect on humoral immune response along with interleukin-2 (IL-2) production and its expression in Wistar albino rats splenocytes culture. Anticancer potential of HAESX was investigated using rat lever hepatoma (N1S1 cancerous cell line). The effect of HAESX over humoral immune response was studied using four groups of five animals each (Group-I as control, Group -II orally fed with 125 mg/kg body weight, Group -III orally fed with 250 mg/kg body weight and Group -IV orally fed with 500 mg/kg body weight of HAESX). Quantification of IL-2 was done by sandwich ELISA and its expression was detected by the real time PCR. SRB assay (Sulforhodamine B) was done for detecting the effect of HAESX on N1S1 cell line. Dose dependent decrease in antibody titer was observed and production of IL-2 was also decreased significantly. Suppression of IL-2 production at 250 µg/mL and 500 µg/mL dose was also confirmed by the Real time PCR. Relative fold change in the expression of IL-2 gene was 592.22 and 10.77 at 250, 500 μg/mL HAESX concentrations respectively with respect to control. Dose dependent suppression of percent growth of N1S1 cells with increasing concentrations (10, 20, 40 and 80 µg/mL) of HAESX was found. It was concluded that S. xanthocarpum have the immunosuppressive, and anti cancer activity that can be further explore in treatment of various inflammatory and autoimmune disease. Page(s): 451-457