BIOCHEMICAL CHANGES OF CERTAIN PLANT SPECIES DUE TO VARIOUS DRYING TREATMENTS
Pandith Javid Iqbal Department of Botany, Govt.
College, Baramulla 193101, Kashmir, India
Submitted: 02-06-2012 Revised: 11-06-2012 Accepted: 20-06-2012 Corresponding author Javid Iqbal Pandith Email :
ABSTRACT
Phytochemical analysis of the Indian medicinal plants to identify the therapeutically active chemical compounds in them and clinically testing for their efficacy and risks is an inescapable procedure, to provide new sources of natural products to the pharmaceutical industry. Therefore, the phytochemical screening studies should be concentrated on the hitherto unexplored medicinal plants for their medicinal values. In the current study the leaves of different medicinal plants like Achyranthus aspera, Acalypha indica, Euphorbia hirta, Lindenbergia indica, Parthenium hysterophorus and Pesistrophe bicalyculata were taken for the chlorophyll and carotenoid estimation by the method of Jayaraman (1981).
The leaves of the following plants were allowed to dry in an oven at different temperatures, time period and freeze drying.
Oven drying was done at 50±10C for 9 hours and at 70±1ºC for 5 hours. Results obtained revealed that both the drying treatments affect/decrease the chlorophyll content of all the six plants. The maximum effect was seen in Euphorbia hirta (93.97%) for oven drying at 50±1ºC for 9 hours. The minimum effect was observed in Parthenium hysterophorus (21.68%) for oven drying at 70±1ºC for 5 hours and Achyranthus aspera (11.56%) for freeze drying. The leaf preparations treated by oven drying was found to have lower chlorophyll and carotenoid content as compared to freeze drying which in turn has lower chlorophyll content as compared to fresh extracts.
Key words: Chlorophyll content, Drying treatments, and leaf extract.
INTRODUCTION
Nature has been a source of medicinal agents since times immemorial. The importance of herbs in the management of human ailments cannot be overemphasized. It is clear that the plant kingdom harbors an inexhaustible source of active ingredients invaluable in the management of many intractable diseases.
Furthermore, the active components of herbal remedies have the advantage of being combined with many other substances that appear to be inactive. However, these complementary components give the plants as a whole a safety and efficiency much superior to that of its isolated and pure active components (Shariff, 2001).
Medicinal plants represent a rich source form which antimicrobial agents may be obtained. Plants are used medicinally in
different countries and are a source of many potent and powerful drugs (Srivastava et al., 1996). The active principles of many drugs found in plants are secondary metabolites.
Therefore, basic phytochemical investigation of these extracts for their major phytoconstituents is also vital (Ghani, 1990).
A knowledge of the chemical constituents of plants is desirable, not only for the discovery of therapeutic agents, but also because such information may be of value in disclosing new sources of such economic materials as tannins, oils, gums, precursors for the synthesis of complex chemical substances, etc. In addition, the knowledge of the chemical constituents of plants would further be valuable in discovering the actual value of folkloric remedies (Edeoga and Eriata, 2001).
Plants are a large source of new bioactive molecules with therapeutic potentiality. Only a small percentage of living plants on earth have been phytochemically investigated. Plants are thus an enormous reservoir of pharmaceutically valuable molecules to be discovered. Exploring unknown plants for the presence of bio-active principles through systematic phytochemical analysis will be an extensive research. And the search should be extended with the identifica- tion of active principles present in them [5]. In India large number of plant species has been screened for their pharmacological and chemo- therapeutic properties, but still a vast wealth of medicinal plants are yet to be explored for their medicinal properties for number of diseases.
The complete extraction of products from plant material is rarely achieved using classical methods of extraction and the separation of individual compounds from these extracts is frequently very difficult. Plant extract is understood in general to mean both plants and parts of plants, for e.g. preferably dried or dehydrated and ground, or also extracts of such plants or parts of plants obtained using at least one aqueous/or organic solvent and being present in standard liquid or in particular solid form used in or dietetics (Lee et al., 2003; Iwu et al., 1999; Schuler, 1990).
METHODOLOGY
The following six Indian medicinal plants which were selected for the biochemical changes due to various drying treatments are:
Achyranthus aspera, Acalypha indica, Euphorbia hirta, Lindenbergia indica, Parthenium hysterophorus and Peristrophe bicalyculata. These plants were selected based on their various long term usages in medicines and these native plants have been collected from various eco-regions of the Agra city.
Drying treatments (Mahanom et al., 1999)
Three different drying treatments were done by using oven at 50±1°C for 9 hours, 70±1°C for 5 hours and freeze drying. These leaf proportions after dried by the following temperature treatment were grained in the mortor and pistol and were stored in an airtight amber bottle at temperature of 4±1°C, until analysis were performed.
Biochemical Analysis
Chlorophyll estimation (Jayaraman, 1981)
Total chlorophyll and carotenoid was determined by Spectrophotometry method described by Jayaraman (1981). A small amount of dried leaf (1 mg) was grinded with mixy or grinder along with 5 mL of distilled water.
Then one ml of this aqueous extract of leaf was taken along with 4 ml 80% acetone (v/v) mixed thoroughly and placed in dark for 10 minutes.
Then centrifuge at 4000 rpm for 10 minutes.
Then the absorbance reading was done at 645 nm and 663 nm for Chlorophyll and at 480 nm and 510 nm for Carotenoid using Spectro- photometer.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The Table shows the biochemical reduction analysed in fresh and dried herbal preparations. The drying treatments cause a significant damage/ reduction in the chloro- phyll and carotenoid content in almost all the plants analyzed. Oven drying cause’s tremen- dous damage in the level of phytochemicals compared to freeze drying. This result confirmed previous report in the literature and supports the advantage of freeze drying over oven drying. The highest damage was observed in oven drying at 50±1°C for 9 hours, follo-wed by oven drying at 70±1°C for 5 hours and the lowest damage was seen in freeze drying.
Change in chlorophyll content
In fresh herbal preparations the total chlorophyll content for various plants are Achyranthus aspera 0.1477 mg/g, Acalypha indica 0.1309 mg/g, Euphorbia hirta 0.0839 mg/g, Lindenbergia indica 0.0847 mg/g, Parthenium hysterophorus 0.0833 and Peristrophe bicalyculata 0.1055 mg/g. Drying treatments affect the chlorophyll content significantly in all the treatments as shown in the table I. The highest
loss was seen in Euphorbia hirta (93.97%) for oven drying at 50±1ºC for 9 hours and less reduction was observed in oven drying at 70±1ºC for 5 hours in Parthenium hysterophorus (21.96%) and the least reduction was seen by freeze drying in Achyranthus aspera (10.07%).
Change in carotenoid content
Total carotenoid Content of Various Plants are Achyranthus aspera 0.050 mg/g, Acalypha indica 0.085 mg/g, Euphorbia hirta 0.030 mg/g, Lindenbergia indica 0.026 mg/g, Parthenium hysterophorus 0.024 and Peristrophe bicalyculata 0.029. Drying Treatment Effect the carotenoid Content also and the maximum effect was observed in Lindenbergia indica 73.07% for oven Drying for 5 hours at 70±1ºC for 5 hours and the least effect was seen in Achylanthus aspera 12%
forovendryat70±1ºCand 4% For Freeze Drying.
Hence it is clear that different drying treatments reduce overall chlorophyll and carotenoid content in all the six plants analyzed.
Therefore it is clear that the green colour of plant parts contain high level of phytochemicals as compared to yellow coloured parts which contain less quantity of phytochemicals, which is confirmed by these drying treatments.
Therefore, the green plant parts contain high medicinal value as compared to yellow plant parts.
Table I. Amino acid composition in porcine and bovine gelatins as well as in capsule shell prepared from bovine gelatin and porcine gelatin (expressed in % w/w).
Plant Name Chlorophyll
Content Control
mg/g Freeze
drying Oven drying for
5 hrs at 70 ± 1ºC Oven dry for 9 hrs at 50 ± 1ºC Achyranthus
aspera Total
Chlorophyll 0.147 0.130 0.086 0.044
Acalypha indica Total
Chlorophyll 0.130 0.110 0.062 0.012
Euphorbia hirta Total
Chlorophyll 0.083 0.062 0.058 0.005
Lindenbergia
indica Total
Chlorophyll 0.084 0.063 0.062 0.015
Parthenium
hysterophorus Total
Chlorophyll 0.083 0.068 0.065 0.021
Peristrophe
bicalyculata Total
Chlorophyll 0.105 0.080 0.075 0.076
Table II. Percentage loss due to various drying Treatments in Chlorophyll Content.
Plant Name Chlorophyll
Content Control
In % Freeze
drying Oven drying for
5 hrs at 70 ± 1ºC Oven dry for 9 hrs at 50 ± 1ºC Achyranthus
aspera Total
Chlorophyll 100% 11.56% 41.49% 70.06%
Acalypha indica Total
Chlorophyll 100% 15.38% 52.30% 90.76%
Euphorbia hirta Total
Chlorophyll 100% 25.30% 30.12% 93.97%
Lindenbergia
indica Total
Chlorophyll 100% 25.00% 26.19% 82.14%
Parthenium
hysterophorus Total
Chlorophyll 100% 18.07% 21.68% 74.69%
Peristrophe
bicalyculata Total
Chlorophyll 100% 23.80% 28.57% 27.61%
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the results indicated that freeze drying of leafy medicinal plants resulted in products that were superior to oven drying at 50±1ºC for 9 hour and 70±1ºC for 5 hour on the basis of nutrients retained namely chlorophyll and carotenoids. This study did not take into account the cost for drying the plants because it is important to retain as much as possible the active ingredients in the dried herbal preparation. This is crucial in order to preserve the biological benefits that the herbs can do. Neverthless, the study revealed that dried medicinal plant leaves still retain appreci-
able amount of chlorophyll and carotenoids in all the treatments except for the sample undergone oven drying at 50±1ºC for 9 hours.
Drying medicinal plants by oven dry at 70±1ºC for 5 hours warrant further research based on the level of phytochemicals remained in the treated samples and relatively low cost involved. Further study is required to carry out effectiveness of the herbal preparation in reducing risks for chronic diseases especially coronary heart disease, cancer and diabetes using rabbit or mouse before the product can be recommended to humans.
Table III. Effect of various drying treatments to change the carotenoid content.
Plant Name Carotenoid
Content Control Freeze
drying Oven drying for
5 hrs at 70 ± 1ºC oven dry for 9 hrs at 50 ± 1ºC Achyranthus
aspera Total
Carotenoid 0.050 0.048 0.044 0.039
Acalypha
indica Total
Carotenoid 0.085 0.052 0.031 0.025
Euphorbia
hirta Total
Carotenoid 0.030 0.021 0.022 0.018
Lindenbergia
indica Total
Carotenoid 0.026 0.016 0.007 0.010
Parthenium
hysterophorus Total
Carotenoid 0.024 0.080 0.018 0.009
Peristrophe
bicalyculata Total
Carotenoid 0.029 0.011 0.014 0.015
Table IV. Percentage loss due to various drying Treatments in carotenoid content.
Plant Name Carotenoid
Content Control Freeze
drying Oven drying for
5 hrs at 70 ± 1ºC oven dry for 9 hrs at 50 ± 1ºC Achyranthus
aspera Total
Carotenoid 100% 4.00% 12.00% 22.00%
Acalypha
indica Total
Carotenoid 100% 38.82% 63.52% 70.58%
Euphorbia
hirta Total
Carotenoid 100% 30.00% 26.66% 40.00%
Lindenbergia
indica Total
Carotenoid 100% 38.46% 73.07% 61.53%
Parthenium
hysterophorus Total
Carotenoid 100% 66.66% 25.00% 62.50%
Peristrophe
bicalyculata Total
Carotenoid 100% 62.06% 51.72% 48.27%
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank The Head, Department of Botany and Principal, Govt. College, Baramulla for providing the laboratory facilities.
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