Planta Med 2011; 77 - P_68
DOI: 10.1055/s-0031-1273597

Comparative Study of Three Species of Plumbago using Microscopy and HPTLC Fingerprinting

A Galal 1, CS Rumalla 1, R Vijayasankar 1, A Weerasooriya 1, IA Khan 1, 2, 3
  • 1National Center for Natural Products Research, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, USA
  • 2Department of Pharmacognosy, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, USA
  • 3Department of Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Plumbago indica and P.zeylanica are widely distributed species, used in the Ayurvedic medicine of India as well as other systems for their beneficial medicinal functions [1]. P. auriculata is an ornamental plant. Detailed microscopic descriptions of the leaf, stem, and root of three Plumbago species grown in the green house of the Medicinal Plant Garden at the University of Mississippi, are presented. In addition, the HPTLC fingerprints of the MeOH extract of the leaf and root derived from the three plants are included. Stems did not exhibit differentiated fingerprints. These three species are known as sources for plumbagin, a naphthoquinone existing as a major constituent, particularly in the roots and displays a diversity of bioactivities [2].The present work revealed distinctive differences between the microscopic characteristics of the leaf, stem, and root as well as the HPTLC profiles of the leaf and root of the three species. In contrast to previous reports, leaf and stem of indoor-grown plants were found to be devoid of plumbagin [3].

Acknowledgement: This research is supported in part by Science Based Authentication of Dietary Supplements and Botanical Dietary Supplement Research funded by the Food and Drug Administration grant numbers 5U01FD002071–10 and 1U01FD003871–02, and the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Specific Cooperative Agreement No. 58–6408–2-0009.

References: [1] Israni SA, Kapadia NS, et al. (2010) Int J of Chem Tech Res, 2: 856–859. [2] Gopinath S, Muralidharan RS, et al (2009) Der Pharmacia Lettre, 1: 135–142. [3] Sheeja E, Joshi SB, et al. (2010) Asian J Chem, 22: 593–596.