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Arnoaaldgan Vol, 5 No,4 Mey 1992 pages 227-2JI

A SPECTROSCOPIC APPROACH TO THEP.HARMACOGNOSY OF wnpELIA CALENDULACEA.

rns^s nniO ECLrprA ALBA (L.) n lssr.

Y. S. PRABHAKTH,R, V. NARMATHA and D. SURESH KUMAR.

ABSTN,ACT /Comparative pharmacogno sy o! Wedelia calend,ulacea Less., and Eclipto al,ba (L.)

Hask,, ie attempted. while microscopical details, ash and hitroEen values didnotshow significant differences, fluof,escence characteristics, uv absorption and r1cpatterns of

.the plant extracts exhibited striking dissimilarities, which cdn beused as pharmacogmostic tools.

IntroductionIn traditional Indian medicine

Wedelia calendulacea Less., and Ecliptaalba (t.) Hassh, are used as liver ronicsand,promoters of hair growth (Chopraet al, r956). These plants are identifiedas pita bhrngaraja and sveta bhrngarajain Ayurveda (Sharma, r 956) and manjalkarisalankanni and vellai karisalankanniin Siddha'medicine (ni l la i , rgsr)respectively.' Medical practitioners useeither of these plants depending uponconvenienpe and availability, SiddhaPractitioners preferring W,calendulaceato E. alba (Yogindranath, 1978) Accor-ding to Indian tradition these two plantsare considered to be closely reiated in

Diaision of Med,icinal chemistra. c. D; R,, 1., Luclcnow - 226 001. Department, oI Botanu,Blld,ratltidr Uniuersitg, Coimbatore - 641 046 o,nd Department of phA siotogA, InternationetInstitute of Ayurueda, Coimbatore-6i11 045.

properties. This contention is supportedby the isoiation of some identieii che-miials from these plants (Govindacharvand Premila, r 98S; Satyavaii et al, r976\.Keeping in view the similarities andwidespread use of these species, thepresent study was uridertaken to findparameters for efficient and speedyidentification of thesp drugs.

Materials and MethodsSamples of plant material were

collected from the medicinal garden ofthe Institute. Standard procedures wereadopted for quantitative- microscopy ofanatomical characters (Johansen, ig+o;Wallis. r98S) and determination of ash,

AR,YAVAIDYAN

mineral and nitrphries,,ur6, ;;:::,#"Tr"ffil:r 9 7 r ) .

' Approximately o.g g of air_driedmaterial were successively maceratedthrice in 5 ml each of petroleum.ether(6o-8o"), chloroform, aietone,

"t.ot ot

and water. Samples of these extracrsI::" y*d ro srudy UV absorb patterns(Hitachi UV Spectrometer), fluoies"enc"properties and TLC patterns. Inactivated

,TLC p-lates (16 cm x 4 cm x o.2S mmcoated with silica gel_G) *"r" ,rr"d.Results and Discussion

Roots, sterns and leaves of l4t. calen-dulacea and ,9. a/ba possess similar ana_tomical characteristics, phloem 6bresare more pronounced in the roots ofE. qlbs. Stomatal indices, palisade ratios,vein-islet numbers 4nd palisade

.etilengths of both the plants do not exhibttmuch variation. However, E. alba ischaracterised by the presence of nume_

rous trichomes with spiny appendages.Ash, mineral and nitrogen

.orrt"rrt'ofV[/. calendulacea and, e. ina were foundto be close to each other.

Fluorescence properties, UV absor_ption and TLC pattern s of W.cqlendulaceaand E a/6a showed several dissimilari_tles. Tor example, fluorescence proper_ties of petroleum ether extracrs

"f rf.r,

stem and leaf and chloroform extracrsof roors exhibited differences (T.bi; ;t

UV absorption patterns of all ext_racts were recorded from 5oo to 2 r o nm,+ lrne-samples wcre prepared by dilutinsbyd i lu t ing o . r _o .2 ml o f the ex t rac ito g ml in respective solvents. It isinteresting to note that petroleum edierextracts showed considerable differencesin their absorption parrerns. Root ofll.calendulacea showed absorptions

"i266, 287.g, 32s.s and 338.5 ,r_ *h"r"" ,E.alba showed only-prominent peak at34 r .S nm. Chloroform extracts of roots

tr'luorescenceTABLE-1

properties of petroleum ether extracts ofW. calendulacea and. E. atba.

root, stem and leaf of

RootObservation Stem LeafW.c W.c W.c

Naked eyeNeutral*

Acidic*Basic*

colourlesspale bluepale bluepale blue

colourless

blueblueblue

colourlesspale violetpale violetpale violet

colourless

blueblueblue

pale yellow yellowcolourless bluecolourless bluecolourless blue

* observed under UV usr,t, ;;;;;;;ith;"",t"r.

W.c : Wed.eliq, calend,ulacea -'-' Y'*

E.q : Ecliptd, elba

acetic acid and basified *itt tri.tf,Eilil.-

228AR,YAVAIDYAN

and stems of Ia.calendulacea and E.alba'exhibited

considerable differences. Stri-king similarities we(e observed incases of acetone extracts of roots ofW.calendulacea and E.alba. The UVabsorption values along , with corresp-onding absorbances are listed in Table z.

fhe extracts were subjected to TtCwith various eluting solvent mixturesto optimise the resoiution' of spots.Petroleum ether extracs of root, stemand leaf of W.calendulacea and E.albashowed differences (Table g). A distinctpale blue spot was observed in cases of

TABIJE-2

UV absorption values oI W. calend,ulaceo a,nd E. atba

StemSolventW.c W.c E.a

I

I

Petroieurnether

Ghlorofornr

Acetone

Ethanol

266*(0.634)287.5(0.386)325.5(0.36e)338.5(0.352)244(0.?61)250(0.?5r)256(0.763)327(0.375)326.5(1.070)

341.5(2.420'

246.8(r.350)346(2.240)

326.5(r.u0)

284(0.503)335(0.488)

219.5(0.852)266(0.0?9)

243(0.441)256,S(0.40s)414.5(0.29?)

332.5(0.302)

288(r.084)335.5(r.053)

259.5(0.164)266.5(0.r65)35t(0.3e3)

250(0.r50)256(0.151)360.5(0.176)

346.5(0.544)43t(0.123)

265(0.226)447(0.2r2)424(0.17e)

242(0.358)4I6(0.824)440(0.s44)

342(0.391)364.8(0.3e?)431.5(0.?32)455(0.4se)282(0.763)340(0,472)4S3.5(0.364)

265(0.474)350.5(0.4?9)448.9(0.522)476(0r45r)244.3(0.492)4t5.5(r.427)439.5(0.862)

346(0.88r)431.5(1.03e)445(0.622)

283.5(r.42t)348(1.285)434(0,61s)

295(0.5e4)332(0.685)

282(r.r34)342(0.842)

I Wavelengths are in nm' Figures in payaqtheses lndicate absorbance

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TLC paAerns of

TABIJE-3

extracts of W. calend,uld,ceeand E, alba

Root.lt9.c W.c W.c

Petroleumether

t022458592

il4895

I4*45688893

l0l84589(pale biue)93

il4879(pale blue)95

l02245?3(plae gray)85s2

bChloroforrn io

'22

6392(pale blue)

6t7306096

l0226393

8t860

95

It86085(pale blue)95

6t7306096

* Rf (x 100); unless otherwise mentioned the colour of the spot is purplea : eluted ln benzene/chloroform I : Ib : eluted in chloroform

the root and stem extracts of E.alba.It is diffioult to draw meaningful infere-nces from TLC patterns of chlorofoimextracts as many spots with identicalRf values were observed. Poorresolutionsand streaking were noticed with acetoneand alcohol extracts.

Histological data, ash, mineral andnitrogen values of W.calendulacea andE.alba do not provide conclusiveevidences .to ascertain their identities.

However, TLC, UV 'absorption andfluorescence proporties of extractq pro-vide sufficient guidelines fbr pharma-cognosy of these plants,

Acknowledgem'ents:Financial assistances provided by

the Ministry of Environment, Forestsand wild life, Government of lndia (y.S.P. V.N.) and the AVR EducationalFoundation cif Ayurveda, Coimbatore(D.S.K.) is gratefully acknowledged.

)'.

t:

REF'ERENCESChopra, R.N,, Nayar, S.[,, Chopra, I. C,Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants, Councilof Scientiflc irnd Industrial Research. NewDelhi, p.104, 258, 1956.

2. Dean, f. A, Flame Photometrv, McGrowHill Book Company, NewYork, p. 2gS, f960.

3. Govindachary, T.R and Premila M. S. phv-toehemietry, 24. 3068i 1985.

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4. Humphries E.C. In: Pisch, K and Tracy M.V. 8. Satyavati, G.V,, Raina, M.K. and Sharmq(Eds.), Modern Methods of Plant Analysis, M. Medicinal Plants of India, Vol. I, Indian

1 Vol.I, Spri4ger Verlag, Heidelberg, Council of Mediceil Research, New Delhi,'p ,468, 1956. p .368,1976.

5. fohansen, D.A. Plant Microtechnique, Mc-Graw llill BooK Company, New York, 9'. Sharma, P.V. Dravyaguna Vijnan, Vol.II & III,p.49, 1940. Ch::klTl" Vidya Bhavan, Varanasi,

6. Pillai, T.V.S. Tamil-English Dictionary of p' 103' lg56'' Med:icine, Ghemistry,

.

Botany and Allied 10. wallis, T.E. Text book of pharmacognosy,

3:ff".::lY,ihlt:,,lT,l;j,$f.or sidcrhar's -

c+i.'iluii,r,li", N; ;"il;;lrriilges.?.' Plummer, D'T. An Infroduction to Practical ll. Yogindranath, B. Rasachandrika Rajavaid-. Biochemistry, McGraw Hill Book company, yam, Vidyarambham press and Book Depot,. New York, p. 154, 1971. Kerala, p. lZ, lg.le. O

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If I had my life to live over again, I would havemade a rule to read some poetr),r and listen to somemusic at least once a week, for perhaps that partof my brain now atrophied would thus have beenkept active through use. The loss