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An in vitro protocol has been established for clonal propagation of Nothapodytes nimmoniana which is an important source of Camptothecin (CPT). Elite source was identified based on the chemical potency to accumulate the optimum level of CPT. Different types and concentrations of plant growth regulators were used to study their effect on inducing multiple shoots from the explants regenerated from embryos of N. nimmoniana. Of these, a combination of N6-benzyladenine (0.2 mg L−1) and Indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) (0.1 mg L−1) proved optimum for differentiating multiple shoots in 90.6 % of the cultures with an average of 10.24 shoots per explant obtained within 8 weeks of inoculation. Nearly, 92 % of the excised in vitro shoots rooted on half strength Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium containing 0.05 % activated charcoal, supplemented with 1-naphthaleneacetic acid and IBA at 0.1 mg L−1 each. The micropropagated plants were evaluated for their genetic fidelity by employing inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR) markers. Ten individuals, randomly chosen from a population of 145 regenerants, were compared with the donor plant. The regenerated plants were also evaluated for their chemical potency using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis of CPT content. The true-to-type nature of the micropropagated plants was confirmed based on their monomorphic banding profiles with that of the mother plants using ISSR markers. Besides, HPLC evaluation of the CPT content confirmed the existence of chemical uniformity among the regenerated plants and the elite mother plant. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13205-016-0490-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

We have investigated the anti-oxidative and glucose-lowering effects of 70% methanolic extract of H. heteroclita fruit pulp (MHE). Anti-oxidative property of MHE was assessed by free radical scavenging assays and compound level screening by LC-MS profiling. In silico analysis and in vivo preclinical validation were also performed using molecular docking and alloxan-induced diabetic model, respectively. MHE showed high anti-oxidant activity in DPPH radical scavenging assay with an IC50 of 0.37 μg/mL. The LC-MS profile of MHE substantiated the presence of p-hydroxy acids including benzoic, salicylic, p-coumaric, o-coumaric, caffeic, protocatechuic, gentisic, 2,4-dihydroxybenzoic, gallic, vanillic, syringic, and ferulic acids. Among these, caffeic acid was the most likely compound to interact with 1R0E at Val70, Ala83, Lys85, Gly97, Asp133, Val135, Leu188, Cys199, and Asp200, and with 1Q4L at Ile62, Ala83, Asp133, Tyr134, Val135, Arg141, and Val170. Treatment of rats with MHE showed significant reduction in serum glucose levels as compared to control rats. Taken together, the results show that MHE has compounds with anti-diabetic effect, which could be partially due to the anti-oxidant effects of the active components in MHE.