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AbstractZingiber zerumbet(L.) Roscoe ex Sm. is an important medicinal herb from the zingiberaceae family that has long been used as a folk medicine to treat a variety of diseases. In the present study, rhizome essential oil of Z. zerumbet(ZZREO) was examined through Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy (GC/MS). Total 28 compounds were identified accounting 91.83% of the total oil. Zerumbone (71.93 ± 0.43%) was identified to be the predominant compound in ZZREO. Apart from zerumbone, camphene (4.01 ± 0.43%), α-humulene (3.83 ± 0.27%), germacrene B (2.38 ± 0.52%), elemol (2.02 ± 0.34%), camphor (1.57 ± 0.39 %) and eucalyptol (1.5 ± 0.29%) were found to be the other major constituents. ZZREO decreases the vitality of Jurkat (Acute T-cell leukaemia) cells in a concentration dependent manner, without damaging human PBMC according to the cytotoxic study. The inhibitory action of tested oil on Jurkat cells was noted at 24 and 48h with IC50value of 36.37 ± 0.94 and 30.83 ± 0.82 μg/mL respectively. Annexin-FITC assay using flow cytometry showed that ZZREO induced apoptosis in jurkat cells. Similarly, cell cycle analysis by PI staining exhibited that it induces G2/M phase cell cycle attest in Jurkat cells. Additionally, DNA fragmentation analysis conformed the apoptosis exhibiting fragmented DNA of ZZREO treated Jurkat cells. ZZREO possesses substantial antiproliferative and apoptosis inducing activity against Jurkat cells, indicating that it could be employed as a therapeutic agent for acute T cell leukemia treatment and management.

AbstractPlumeria alba(Family: Apocynaceae), commonly known as temple tree/white frangipani is an ornamental, deciduous, tropical plant grown in landscape places, gardens, parks, and home premises for its beautiful and fragrant flowers. The different parts of white frangipani are traditionally used for the treatment of several diseases. This study was executed to identify the volatile constituents of the flower essential oil of P. albafrom India, as this has not been studied to date. The essential oil composition was investigated through GC/MS analysis. The isolation of essential oil through the hydrodistillation method produced a yield of 0.05±0.01 %. A total of 46 volatile constituents were identified, representing 98.11±0.5 % of the total essential oil. The essential oil was rich in esters comprising 48.61±0.3 % of the essential oil followed by oxygenated monoterpene (15.41±0.1 %), oxygenated sesquiterpene (10.43±0.08 %) and sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (10.39±0.1 %), etc. The dominant components of the essential oil were benzyl salicylate (33.98±0.04 %), benzyl benzoate (12.37±0.03 %), germacrene B (10.30±0.05 %), and linalool (8.17±0.11 %). Other notable constituents identified in the essential oil were (2Z,6Z)-farnesol, n-heneicosane, n-nonadecane, (Z, E)-geranyl linalool, trans-sabinene hydrate acetate, (2E,6Z)-farnesol, α-terpineol, n-docosane, geranyl benzoate, n-tricosane, α-bisabolol, nerol and 8-cedren-13-ol, etc. (1.17 % - 4.76 %).

AbstractElettaria cardamomum(L.) Maton (Zingiberaceae), commonly known as green or true cardamom, is a commercially important species, the seeds of which are extensively used in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries. In spite of the increasing demand for cardamom essential oil in the international market, the chemical profiling of volatile compounds of different plant parts are not well explored. Though there are a few studies on the chemical characteristics of its leaf oil from other phytogeographical regions, the presence and chemical composition of essential oil from stems have not yet been reported. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to characterize the chemical composition and antioxidant activity of leaf and stem essential oil of E. cardamomum.The essential oil extracted by hydro-distillation from the leaf and stem revealed the presence of 43 and 37 compounds, representing 92.71 % and 92.12 % of total oil respectively by GC/MS analysis. The major constituents of the leaf essential oil were 1,8-cineole (20.66 %), camphene (18.09 %), camphor (10.02 %) and tricyclene (7.36 %); whereas α-terpinyl acetate (19.75 %), 1,8-cineole (10.38 %), caryophyllene oxide (7.13 %) and β-eudesmol (4.85 %) were rich in the stem essential oil. Oxygenated monoterpenes were the major terpenic fraction in the leaf and stem essential oil of E. cardamomum. The free radical scavenging ability assessed by DPPH (2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) and ABTS (2, 2-azinobis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) assay showed that leaf oil had better activities as compared to stem oil. The present findings demonstrated that E. cardamomumgrowing wild in Eastern India could be considered as an important bioresource and natural antioxidant.

AbstractZingiber zerumbet(L.) Roscoe ex Sm. (family-Zingiberaceae) is an important medicinal herb. Though rhizome extract of this species has been used in traditional herbal medicine across the globe for the treatment of numerous diseases like worms, cough, leprosy, asthma and other skin diseases, the composition of the extract is not characterised properly till date. Thus, acetone extract of Zingiber zerumbetrhizome was subjected to Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) to analyze the phytoconstituents. A total of nine compounds were obtained out of which zerumbone was found to be the major constituent covering 64.58 % of the total area. Beside zerumbone, other important compounds like diacetone alcohol (10.64 %), α-humulene (8.93 %), caryophyllene oxide (5.68 %), humulene epoxide (3.18 %), Eudesm-7(11)-en-4-ol (2.87 %), aromadendrene oxide (1.98 %) were also found in the tested extract with some other compounds in trace amount. Among the compounds, terpenes were found to be the primary constituent of the extract. This finding revealed the presence of the high amount of terpenes in the rhizome of Z. zerumbetfor the first time. The study indicated that Z. zerumbetis a good source of sesquiterpenes and oxygenated sesquiterpenes which can be used at industrial level for the production of pharmaceuticals, perfumes and flavouring agents.

AbstractCurcuma longaL. (turmeric), family Zingiberaceae, is an industrially valued plant having multipurpose use in cosmetics, dye, food and pharmaceutical industries. In the present study, the essential oil content and composition of 8 Indian turmeric cultivars has been analysed under similar environmental condition. The essential oil content of the fresh rhizomes varied from 0.5-0.9 % (v/w) and oil yield per plant varied from 1.6-3.49 ml. The GC/MS analysis has shown the presence of about 24-32 compounds representing 78.6-90.2 % of the total essential oil among 8 cultivars. The major compounds identified were Ar-Turmerone (39.5-45.5 %), Curlone (9.8-11.7 %), α-Phellandrene (5.5-7.7 %), Eucalyptol (3.2-5.5 %), β-Himachalene (1.6-5.5 %) and α-Copen-11-ol (2.3-5.4 %). Sesquiterpene hydrocarbons were found to be the main constituents in all eight cultivars analysed. Thus the result revealed that the cultivars Suroma and Lakadong having significantly high essential oil yield and quality could be used for commercial production of essential oil for their stable supply to national and international market.

AbstractEssential oil of twenty-five germplasms of Zingiber zerumbetfrom different accessions of Eastern India were analysed using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy (GC/MS). A total of 29 constituents were identified representing between 72.45-98.93% of total area. Zerumbone content was found to be in a range of 60.1-79.59% for the tested rhizomes. Acc. Haroa (W.B) was found to contain highest amount of zerumbone (79.59%) in its rhizome oil. α-humulene, (0.62-7.15%), camphene (0.91-6.2%), α-fenchene (0.76-5.05%), eucalyptol (0.21-1.8%) and camphor (0.79-2.0%) were found as the other major constituents in all tested oils. According to agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) and principal component analysis (PCA), the essential oil from collected accessions were divided into two major groups. Furthermore ISSR analysis showed 59.6-100% polymorphism among the tasted samples. The PIC value and the resolving power (RP) were found to be in a range of 0.37-0.71 and 3.76-12.48 respectively. The unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averages (UPGMA) cluster analysis divided the germplasms in to two major clusters. Nei's genetic diversity (h) of 0.2874± 0.1592 and Shannon's informationindex (I) of 0.4421± 0.2046 describes a low genetic diversity in Z. zerumbet.Furthermore ISSR analysis showed 59.6-100% polymorphism among the tested samples. The PIC value and the resolving power (RP) were found to be in a range of 0.37-0.71 and 3.76-12.48 respectively. The results of this study will be helpful in the assortment of appropriate genotypes for different climatic conditions as well as for the conservation and enhancement programme.

The present investigation was carried out to establish an efficient and reproducible micropropagation protocol for the production of morphologically, genetically and chemically uniform plants of Curcuma zedoaria. Axillary bud explants of C. zedoariawere inoculated into MS basal medium supplemented with various combinations and concentrations of 6-benzyladenine (2.2–22.2 µM, BA), kinetin (2.3–23.2 µM, Kin), indole-3-acetic acid (2.9–11.4 µM, IAA), α-naphthalene acetic acid (2.7–10.2 µM, NAA) and adenine sulphate (33.9–203.6 µM, Ads). Almost 95% of rhizome buds sprouted on MS medium supplemented with 13.3 μM BA, 5.7 μM IAA and 63.9 μM Ads giving rise to an average of 12.89 ± 0.02 shoots within 6 weeks. However, the maximum number of roots (25.8 ± 0.07 roots per explant) was obtained on half strength MS medium supplemented with 7.4 µM of IBA after 4 weeks of inoculation. Morphological characteristics were similar in both conventionally propagated and micropropagated plants. Additionally, genetic homogeneity of in vitro plants was further confirmed through ISSR and flow cytometry analysis. A total of 27 ISSR primers were screened, out of which 13 ISSR primers generated 58 monomorphic and reproducible bands thereby confirming the genetic uniformity of obtained plants. The mean 2C DNA content of the mother plant (2.96 pg) was similar to that of in vitro derived plants (3.07 pg). Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis showed similarity in the qualitative profile of chemical constituents of essential oil and high-performance liquid chromatography analysis revealed no significant differences in curcumin content in the tissue culture regenerants and mother plants of C. zedoaria. Therefore, the present micropropagation protocol could be effectively employed to generate true to type plantlets of C. zedoaria.