Phytochemical analysis of therapeutic plants occurring in Dera Ismail Khan Region

Plants contain different types of bio-active compounds that can be used to cure many diseases and also they can cure against many infectious diseases. These compounds are known as phytochemicals they may be primary or secondary constituents. Primary constituents have proteins, sugar, amino acids. Secondary constituents contain terpenoids, flavonoids and alkaloids. These compounds have antifungal as well as antibacterial activities.In this study different plants that are commonly found in Dera Ismail Khan region was investigated for phytochemical analysis, These plants were Acacia Nilotica, Luffa Cylindrical, Morus Nigra, Morus Alba, Punica Granatum and Psidium Guava commonly available in Dera Ismail khan region of Pakistan. Leaves, flower and fruits were washed, dried in air and ground to powdered. Aqueous extracts of leaves, flower and fruits were used for phytochemical analysis. All the parts were rich in phytochemicals i.e. terpenoids, tannins, flavonoids and steroids, etc. The phytochemical analysis has a great interest in pharmaceutical industries for new drugs and for curing different diseases. These phytochemicals found in this study can be used for curing different diseases.

Evaluation of Rosmarinus officinalis L. extract on spatial memory, learning and antioxidant enzymes activities in the hippocampus of rats

The Rosemarinus officinalis extract (RE) possesses various antioxidant, cytoprotective and cognition- improving bioactivities. In this study, we postulated which doses of RE have a more effect on the hippocampus of middle-aged rats. In this experimental study, thirty-two middle-aged swiss albino rats were fed by different doses (50, 100 and 200 mg/kg/day) of RE (containing 40% carnosic acid) or distilled water for 12 weeks. The effects of different RE doses on learning and spatial memory scores, hippocampal neuronal survival, antioxidant enzymes and lipid peroxidation amount were evaluated by one and two way analysis of variance (ANOVA). It seemed that RE (100mg/kg) could recover the spatial memory retrieval score (p< 0.05). The amount of activity of SOD, GPx and CAT enzymes in the hippocampus of animals of the RE (100mg/kg) group showed a significant increase compared to the normal group (p< 0.01), (p< 0.01) and (p< 0.05), respectively. Also, the amount of activity of GPx in the RE (100 mg/kg) group of animals showed a significant increase compared to the normal group (p< 0.05). No significant difference was found between the groups in the MDA level. The results revealed that RE (40% carnosic acid) may improve the memory score and oxidative stress activity in middle aged rats in a dose dependent manner, especially in 100mg/kg.

Effect of edible chitosan coating on postharvest life of carrot (Daucus carota L.)

The carrot is an important vegetable. Carrot is one of the potential sources of natural phyto pigments and antioxidant nutrient such as lycopene and β-carotene. The present research work was conducted on carrot vegetable. Its main purpose is to decrease their losses and preserve for future use by edible coating that helped to reduce rate of respiration and transpiration, growth of microorganism, improve its color and texture quality attributes. Polyethylene bags maintain the high humidity, reduce weight loss and consequently slow down the drying process. It maintained the organoleptic properties of fruits and vegetables. In experiment edible coating such as chitosan (0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0% concentration) in 0.25 N HCl, 0.50 ml glycerol and packaging material polyethylene was applied on carrot vegetables in order to evaluate their physico-chemical composition i.e weight loss, moisture loss, total soluble solids, pH, ascorbic acid, β-carotene, and also sensory parameters such as color, flavor, texture, taste and overall acceptability at 4th day intervals during 20 days of storage at ambient temperature.

Effect of different storage conditions on physico-chemical composition and shelf life of persimmon fruit

Persimmon is naturally divulged with bioactive molecules including tannins etc. and its utilization may be helpful to reducing the diabetes mellitus. Therefore this research study was carried out to enhance the shelf life of persimmon fruit at refrigeration and ambient temperature (Temperature 20-23oC Relative humidity 60-63%) during storage. The quality attribute such as weight loss, TSS (°Brix), pH, titrable acidity total tannin (mg/100g) and ascorbic acid were studied at an interval of 3 days for a total period of 12 days. However, the treatment of T5 (sun dried + low density polyethylene) was superior to all other treatments in retention of vitamin C, total soluble solids, titratable acidity, total tannin and pH with minimum weight loss compared to control whereas the treatment T6 (oven dried + HDPE) was found better to all other treatments during storage. The treated persimmon fruit have increased storage life as compared to control. Present study was proved helpful to evaluate the effect of storage condition on physico-chemical composition and increase the postharvest life of treated fruits during storage.