Journal of Ecosystem & Ecography
Open Access

Abstract

Nature is the best source of medicinal constituents. Medicinal plants constitute main source of new pharmaceuticals and health care products. Over 50% of all modern drugs are of natural origin and they play an important role in drug development programs. Remusatia vivipara (Roxb.) Schott., is one of the edible and medicinally important plant of Araceae. It is distributed world wide and is found in the Himalayas and Western Ghats of India. Leaves and tubers are the edible parts. The plant is used in folk medicine to cure inflammation, arthritis, to dispel worms and germs for disinfecting genito-urinary tract and for promoting conception, also used as an analgesic. R. vivipara was collected from natural forests of Coorg district, Western Ghats, India. The aqueous extracts of leaves and tuber were evaluated for phytochemical constituents, anti-oxidant activity and total soluble carbohydrate. Flavonoids, terpenoids and reducing sugars were present in leaf and tuber extracts while alkaloids were present in leaf extract. The anti-oxidant activities of the aqueous extracts were evaluated by estimating total phenolics and DPPH radical scavenging assay. High phenolic content were detected in leaves while, low amounts were found in tuber. The radical scavenging potentials indicated four-fold increase in the activity of tuber in comparison with leaves. Total soluble carbohydrates were high in tuber than in leaf extract. On the basis of these findings it may be inferred that plant parts of R. vivipara such as leaves and tuber is an important source of chemical constituents important for health benefits.

Biography

I Asha D pursuing M.Sc degree from University of Mysore, Department of Studies in Botany, Mysore, Karnataka and I completed M.Sc. project work under the guidance of Dr. M .S. Nalini, Assistant Professor, University of Mysore. I have attended the South Zone Conference on Fungal Diversity and Emerging Crop Diseases in the year 2011 organized by Indian Society of Mycology and Plant Pathology, Udaipur.