Element Profile of Some Plants used in Traditional Medicine

ABOUT AUTHOR
AS Burungale*, BS Shinde, SV Thite, BA Kore, VT Aparadh
Department of Chemistry and Botany
Yashvanrao Chavan Institute of Science, Satara-415001.
E-mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT
Three medicinal plants viz. Syzygium cumini L., Boerhavia erecta L. and Gymnema sylvestre Retz.  have been selected to study the mineral profile. These plants were subjected to know 14 different macro and micro elements. Current investigation highlights supportive role of mineral elements for medicinal potential of studied plants. It can be concluded from the results that S. cumini, B. erecta, G. sylvestre having powerful Fe, Zn, Mo, uptake potential which is supportive to their various disease resistant properties.
Key words:  Syzygium cumini, Boerhavia erecta, Gymnema sylvestre, mineral profile,
Introduction
India is one of the world’s mega biodiversity center having more than 45000 different plant species. However, only 7000-7500 species are used for their medicinal values by traditional communities. From back centuries human race rapidly tried to gather knowledge of ancient ethnic medicines and their sources. From ancient time the world population depends mainly on plants and plant extracts for health care. From India, drugs of herbal origin have been documented mostly in Unani and Ayurveda since ancient times. The herbal products today represent safety in contrast to the synthetics that are regarded as unsafe to human and environment. The drugs are derived either from the whole plant or from different organs, like leaves, stem, bark, root, flower, seed, etc. Some drugs are prepared from excretory plant product such as gum, resins and latex. Here is an attempt has been made to know which are acting element for medicinal properties with the help of medicinal plantsviz. Syzygium cumini L., Boerhavia erecta L. and Gymnema sylvestre Retz. Syzygium cumini Linn from family Myrtaceae, is a medicinal plant native to India. It has medicinal properties like antibacterial activity, antioxidant properties, vibriocidal properties, antiallergic properties, antinociceptive properties, anti-inflammatory properties and some chemoprotective properties. Boerhavia erecta is from family Nyctaginaceae, it is weedy herb and is commonly available in almost all places. It is used as a traditional medicinal plant in Africa. It has been found to possess diuretic action Singh et al., anti-inflammatory, antifibrinolytic, anticonvulsant  and hepatoprotective activities. Gymnema sylvestre is a woody, climbing plant, native to India. Gymnema sylvestre is Asclepiadaceae family member used as stomachic, diuretic, refrigerant, astringent, and tonic.  Importance of this plant as antidiabetic purpose have been reported by Prakash et al. and Shanmugasundaram et al. Gymnema amplifies the activity of enzymes responsible for glucose uptake and utilization and inhibits peripheral utilization of glucose by somatotrophin and corticotrophin and inhibit epinephrine-induced hyperglycemia.