Plants are the richest resource of drugs of traditional systems of medicine and modern medicines. Medicinal plant species has its own nutrient composition besides pharmacologically important phytochemicals. Nutraceutics is an emerging field of therapy. As we come to the end of this millennium, more and more people are getting health conscious are looking at dietary substances for preventive or curative effects. The importance of minerals such as potassium, calcium, sodium etc. to human health is well known.The nutritional values and mineral composition of medicinal plants are being used as dietary supplements by humans. The nutritional compositions of selected Ceropegia species were found as good nutritive value. Nutritive compositions were analyzed and compared in vitro plant parts of Ceropegia spiralis, Ceropegia candelabrum and Ceropegia juncea. Sixty to seventy five days old in vitro plants were taken for biochemical studies of total proteins, total carbohydrates, sugar, starch and amino acid.Among the three samples analyzed, high protein sugar and aminoacids content was noticed in Ceropegia juncea and total carbohydrates and protein values high in Ceropegia candelabrum, Ceropegia candelabrum was found to be a rich source of iron (18.55±0.11) followed by Ceropegia juncea (17.74±0.25) and Ceropegia spiralis (17.56±0.25).Nutraceuticals importance of these valuable plants may help in future for the production of new medicines and valuable food stuffs. The secondary metabolitices present in them give them a specific medicinal benefit other than a purely nutritional.These species are utilized for Indian system of medicine and scientists encourage them to rationalize it suiting the modern requirements of biotechnology.
BIOCHEMICAL STUDIES ON SOME MEDICINAL PLANTS
