Flora Of Pakistan Research Articles

English

Ghizer district of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan is gifted with tremendous natural resources. Plant resources have long been used to cure different human as well as livestock ailments in this part like others in the world. This study was conducted to document the indigenous and traditional uses of medicinal plants, the status of traditional knowledge with the advancement of technology and modern healthcare facilities to find out the mode, part and way of usage and more importantly to know the threats for the plant resources to provide a baseline survey for conservation and management of medicinal plants. Field visits were conducted to collect the plant species in June and July, 2012. The information on local names and uses were collected from the local communities and herbalist through direct interview, questioners and showing photographs. The identification and nomenclature of the plant species was made by consulting different taxonomists and available literature especially following the flora of Pakistan. The data was analyzed using Excel spreadsheets and preference ranking, paired comparison test and direct matrix ranking. A total of 34 species belonging to 18 were used as medicine. Males above 40 years were found to be more knowledgeable regarding uses of medicinal plants than women and youngsters. The leaves are the most common part of plants used as medicine. Medicinal plants are in severe under pressure of over grazing, cutting and climate change impacts. Conservation of medicinal plants, awareness among the local inhabitants and promotion of indigenous knowledge by promotion of research activities are required. Key words: Ghizer, ethnobotany, traditional uses, medicinal plants, diseases, threats, conservation.

Phenolic profile and antioxidant activity of various extracts from Citrullus colocynthis (L.) from the Pakistani flora

The aim of the present study was to quantify phenolic acids and flavonoids from Citrullus colocynthis roots (CCR), leaves (CCL) fruits (CCF) and compare the antioxidant and free radical scavenging activities of their extracts and major compounds. Reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography method was developed and validated for the simultaneous quantification of phenolic acids and flavonoids from ethanol and hexane extracts of CCR, CCL and CCF. The antioxidant activity of CCR, CCL and CCF extracts was investigated by measuring total phenolics, total flavonoids contents, DPPH free radical scavenging activity, inhibition of linoleic acid peroxidation and reducing power. The RP-HPLC analysis of C. colocynthis extracts revealed the presence of ferulic acid, vanillic acid, p-coumeric acid, gallic acid, p-hydroxy benzoic acid and chlorogenic acid being the major phenolic acids and quercetin, myricetin and catechin being the most prominent flavonoids compounds. The amounts of TP (3.07–18.6mg/g of dry plant material, measured as gallic acid equivalent) and TF (0.51–13.9mg/g of dry plant material, measured as catechin equivalent) were higher in ethanol extracts of CCL, followed by CCR and CCF. Ethanol extract of CCL exhibited the highest antioxidant and DPPH radical scavenging activities followed by ethanol extracts of CCR and CCF. However, only hexane extract of CCF showed considerable DPPH radical scavenging activity. The results suggested that CCR, CCL and CCF extracts showed a wide variability of their phenolic acids and flavonoids composition and antioxidant activity.

Identification, Characterization, and Palynology of High‐Valued Medicinal Plants

High-valued medicinal plants Achillea millefolium, Acorus calamus, Arnebia nobilis, Fumaria indica, Gymnema sylvestre, Origanum vulgare, Paeonia emodi, Peganum harmala, Psoralea corylifolia, Rauwolfia serpentina, and Vetiveria zizanioides were identified with the help of taxonomical markers and investigated for characterization and palynological studies. These parameters are used to analyze their quality, safety, and standardization for their safe use. Botanical description and crude drug description is intended for their quality assurance at the time of collection, commerce stages, manufacturing, and production. For this purpose the detailed morphology was studied and compared with the Flora of Pakistan and other available literatures. Here we reported the pollen grain morphology of Origanum vulgare, Paeonia emodi, Psoralea corylifolia, and Rauwolfia serpentina for the first time. Similarly the crude drug study of Gymnema sylvestre (leaf), Origanum vulgare (aerial parts), Paeonia emodi (tubers), and Peganum harmala (seeds) was also carried out for the first time.

Antioxidant Activity and Volatile and Phenolic Profiles of Essential Oil and Different Extracts of Wild Mint (Mentha longifolia) from the Pakistani Flora

The antioxidant activity and free radical scavenging capacity of the essential oil and three different extracts of wildly grown Mentha longifolia (M. longifolia) were studied. The essential oil from M. longifolia aerial parts was isolated by hydrodistillation technique using Clevenger-type apparatus. The extracts were prepared with three solvents of different polarity (n-hexane, dichloromethane, and methanol) using Soxhlet extractor. Maximum extract yield was obtained with methanol (12.6 g/100 g) while the minimum with dichloromethane (3.50 g/100 g). The essential oil content was found to be 1.07 g/100 g. A total of 19 constituents were identified in the M. longifolia oil using GC/MS. The main components detected were piperitenone oxide, piperitenone, germacrene D, borneol, and β-caryophyllene. The total phenolics (TP) and total flavonoids (TF) contents of the methanol extract of M. longifolia were found to be significantly higher than dichloromethane and hexane extracts. The dichloromethane and methanol extracts exhibited excellent antioxidant activity as assessed by 2,2′-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging ability, bleaching β-carotene, and inhibition of linoleic acid peroxidation assays. The essential oil and hexane extract showed comparatively weaker antioxidant and free radical scavenging activities. The results of the study have validated the medicinal and antioxidant potential of M. longifolia essential oil and extracts.

Chemical composition and bioactivity studies of the essential oils from two Thymus species from the Pakistani flora

The aim of this study was to evaluate the antibacterial, antioxidant, antimalarial and antiproliferative activities of the essential oils of two Pakistani plants, Thymus linearis and Thymus serpyllum of the family Lamiaceae. The GC–MS analyses of the essential oils of T. linearis and T. serpyllum led to the identification of 48 and 35 components, respectively. The major constituents of T. linearis oil were thymol (36.5%), carvacrol (9.50%), thymyl acetate (7.30%), and β-caryophyllene (5.76%), whereas, carvacrol (44.4%), o-cymene (14.0%), α-terpineol (6.47%), α-pinene (6.06%) and β-caryophyllene (5.25%) were the main components of T. serpyllum oil. In the disc diffusion and resazurin microtitre assays, the essential oil of T. linearis showed better antibacterial activity than that of T. serpyllum. Both essential oils were also active, although at relatively high concentrations, against amphicillin-resistant Escherichia coli. In the DPPH assay, the essential oils of T. serpyllum showed more potent antioxidant activity than T. linearis essential oil. Both essential oils exhibited poor anti-haem biocrystallisation activity. In the MTT assay, the anti-proliferative activity of T. linearis essential oil against MCF-7, LNCaP and NIH-3T3 cell lines in terms of IC50 were 80.7, 70.3 and 100.2 μg/ml, respectively, which were notably stronger than T. serpyllum essential oil.

A molecular phylogeny of selected species of genus Prunus L. (Rosaceae) from Pakistan using the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) spacer DNA

Prunus is found in all four provinces of Pakistan, that is, Punjab, NWFP, Sindh and Baluchistan including Azad Kashmir region. Studies on the family Rosaceae is scanty in the Flora of Pakistan and there is a lot of taxonomic work yet to be done, for the proper classification and placement of different genera under different sub-families. In the present study, the genus Prunus was studied in detail to find out the phylogenetic relationship among the 23 species of Prunus, selected from different regions of Pakistan and GenBank using maximum parsimony analysis of sequence polymorphism in nuclear ITS-9 and ITS-6 spacer DNA. The results for the internal transcribed spacer (ITS)- 9 and ITS- 6 primers confirm the work done by early phylogenetists with additions of new species from Pakistan including Prunus bokhariensis, Prunus dulcis (Mill.) D.A. Webb. (Syn. Prunus amygdalus) and Prunus cornuta (Wall. ex. Royle) Steudel. These are indigenous to Pakistan. In the ITS strict consensus results for example, the clade consisting of Laurocerasus, Padus and Cerasus subgenera are sister to the rest of the clades in the phylogenetic tree. Key words : Phylogeny, Prunus, Pakistan, molecular phylogeny, nuclear primers.

Comparative Study of Honey Collected from Different Flora of Pakistan

Comparative Study of Honey Collected from Different Flora of Pakistan