Phytochemical and antibacterial analysis of two morpho-types of Solanum melongena var. insanum (L.) Prain. an ayrvedic herb

Abstract

The Solanaceae, one of the largest family in angiosperms have high commercial value. The genus Solanum in Solanaceae is a complex one. Many species in Solanum does not contain a well-defined species boundaries. Many of them with taxonomical controversies. The present study was about such a Solanum species – Solanum melongena var. insanum. There were two morpho-types which are botanically known as S. melongena var. insanum. In Ayurveda both of them were treated as separate plants – as „Cheruvazhuthina‟ and „Punyahachunda‟. „Cheruvazhuthina‟ was extensively used in Ayurveda but „Punyahachunda‟ was not. Roots of „Punyahachunda‟ was used instead in the unavailability of roots of „Cheruvazhuthina‟. So this study was aimed to analyse the pharmacognostic properties of both morpho-types. The therapeutic value was assayed by antibacterial activity of roots of both plants. For convenience the two plants viz., „Cheruvazhuthina‟ and „Punyahachunda‟ were denoted as morpho-type 1 and morpho-type 2 respectively. Phytochemical profiling revealed significant differences in certain components. Hence the samples were subjected for FT-IR analyses and the spectra showed high pattern of similarity as well as differences in both the morpho-types investigated. Phytochemical profile was prepared for both the morpho-types which were further fractionated by chromatography. The fractionated components were subjected for bioassay against the growth inhibition of E. coli. The bioassay results revealed that the therapeutic potency of morpho-type 1 was more significant and hence I recommend the use of morphote type 1. However a detailed phytochemical as well as molecular profiling is warranted to confirm the recently obtained results.