• Advances in Traditional Medicine
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.363-371
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• 2007

The methanol extract of the seed of Swietenia macrophylla (Meliaceae) seeds were investigated for its hypoglycaemic activity in normal and alloxan induced diabetic rats. Seed extract suspended in aqueous Tween 80 solution, the graded doses were administered to normal and experimental diabetic rats for 10 days. Fasting blood glucose levels, serum lipid profiles and changes in body weight were evaluated in normal rats while the hepatic marker enzymes and liver glycogen levels were evaluated additionally in diabetic rats. The diabetic groups treated with the seed extract were compared with standard drug glibenclamide. The findings showed the significant antidiabetic potential of the extract in ameliorating the diabetic conditions in diabetic rats. The extract also has hypoglycaemic action in normal rats. A toxicity study has been performed for the extract, which revealed that the extract is safe to use even at the doses of 3.2 mg/kg of body weight orally. The result from the present investigation indicates good correlation between the folk use and scientific investigation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.578-581
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• 1995

The seasonal variation of two flavonoid, quercitrin and afzelin, in the leaves of Cedrela sinensis A. Juss. from May until November was investigated by high performance liquid chromatography. Separation by reversed phase chromatography on ${\mu}-Bondapak\;C_{18}$ column was achieved by isocratic elution. The concentration of quercitrin was 5.81% (w/w) in May and high in July(8.89%, w/w), August(7.94%, w/w), and decreased from September to November. The content of another flavonoid, afzelin was 0.06% (w/w) in May and highest in June (0.12%, w/w), and was reduced from July.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.141-147
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• 2021

An experiment was conducted to observe the effect of polybag size on the growth and quality of Khaya anthotheca seedlings during September 2016 to June 2017 at the nursery of Silvicultural Research Division of Bangladesh Forest Research Institute. Three different polybag size such as T₁ (15 cm×23 cm), T₂ (13 cm×18 cm) and T₃ (11 cm×15 cm) with four replications were used for the experiment. The experiment was designed in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with four replications. Different sized polybags showed significant influence on survival percentage (T₁-100%, T₂-93.5%, T₃-88%) and growth parameters (height, root collar diameter, leave number and root length) of the seedlings. The species grown in T₁ size polybag was observed to be superior to other bag size. Dickson's Quality index of seedlings raised in T₁ size polybag was observed highest value which is the indicator of best quality seedlings. Therefore, the use of T₁ poly bag size can be suggested for seedling production of K. anthotheca in the nursery.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.18-27
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• 2021

Eight cytotoxic constituents, consisting of six triterpenoids, cabralealactone (1), cabraleadiol (2), prototiamin A (3), 23-desmethyllimocin B (5), melianodiol (7) and indicalilacol (8) along with one limonoid, neemfruitins A (4) and one protolimonoid, protoxylocarpin G (6), were isolated from the extract of n-hexane of the stembark of Chisocheton pentandrus. The chemical structures were identified on the basis of spectroscopic evidence and compared to previously reported spectra. These isolated compounds appear for the first time in the plant. Compounds 1 - 8 were evaluated for their cytotoxic effect against MCF-7 breast cancer lines in vitro. Among the isolated compounds, melianodiol (7) showed the strongest cytotoxic activity with IC50 values of 16.8 µM.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.173-183
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• 2022

Through the collection of herbarium specimens in Bhutan over the years, new plant species are discovered nearly annually. Thus, this paper reports two new genera and 19 new records of flowering plant species from Bhutan. The new genera include Eurycorymbus of the family Sapindaceae and Homalium of the family Salicaceae. The new records of plant species are Eranthemum erythrochilum (Acanthaceae), Hemidesmus indicus (Apocynaceae), Ilex umbellulata (Aquifoliaceae), Canarium strictum (Burseraceae), Ehretia acuminate (Boraginaceae), Vaccinium sikkimense (Ericaceae), Nothapodytes foetida (Icacinaceae), Machilus edulis (Lauraceae), Grewia asiatica (Malvaceae), Hibiscus fragrans (Malvaceae), Cipadessa baccifera (Meliaceae), Baccaurea javanica (Phyllanthaceae), Canthiumera glabra (Rubiaceae), Homalium napaulense (Salicaceae), Eurycorymbus cavaleriei (Sapindaceae), Acmella radicans (Asteraceae), Silene latifolia (Caryophyllaceae), Cleome rutidosperma (Cleomaceae), and Cuphea carthagenensis (Lythraceae). Morphological determinations of the genera and species were carried out at the National Herbarium (THIM) of the National Biodiversity Centre of Bhutan. Brief descriptions of the species, phenology, and photo plates are provided in this annotated checklist.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.6-11
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• 1994

The MeOH extract of the fruits of Melia toosendan was selected for futher study by its cytotoxicity and effect on the human breast cancer cell line, MCF-7. The active principle obtained by activity guided fractionation followed by purification gave rise to a needle crystal. The structure was deduced by employing NMR and was determined to be identical with 28-deacetyl sendanin by comparison with published data. This compound induced morphological change of MCF-7 to be rounded with tubule at concentrations between $50\;{\mu}g/ml$ and $0.025\;{\mu}g/ml$. This compound, however, showed strong cytotoxic effect on Hepalclc7 and HepG2, and their $GI_{50}$ on the hepatoma cell lines were $0.238\;{\mu}g/ml$ and $0.805\;{\mu}g/ml$, respectively. Its effect on lymphocyte of mouse was stronger than hepatoma cell lines, and their $ED_{50}$ of polyclonal antibody response was $0.011\;{\mu}g/ml$, and $ED_{50}$ of cell viability was $0.039\;{\mu}g/ml$.

• Advances in Traditional Medicine
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.302-310
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• 2008

Azadirachta indica A. Juss (N.O. Meliaceae), popularly known, as 'Neem' is an indigenous tree widely available in India. Almost every part of the tree has long been used in Unani system of medicine for the treatment of a variety of human ailments. The flowers have been mentioned as a remedy useful in controlling diabetes mellitus. The present study had been designed to investigate the hypoglycemic/anti-hyperglycemic effects of the methanolic extract of the flowers of A. indica (Gule-Neem) and its different fractions on normal, glucose fed hyperglycemic, adrenaline induced hyperglycemic and alloxan induced diabetic rats. The methanolic extract was resolved into water soluble and water insoluble fractions. Water soluble portion of the methanolic extract was found to possess significant blood sugar lowering effect in glucose-fed and adrenaline-induced hyperglycemic rats but it did not show such effect in normal and alloxan induced mild and severe diabetic rats. Water-soluble portion was fractionated by employing the polarity criterion with ethyl acetate and butanol. The ethyl acetate fraction was further fractionated into phenolic and non-phenolic fractions. Hypoglycemic effect of these fractions was also evaluated. The results suggest that the flowers of A. indica contain at least two different constituents, responsible for the said activity. These investigations validate the use of flowers of A. indica in diabetes by Unani physicians.

• Advances in Traditional Medicine
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.187-195
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• 2004

A number of plants from different geographical origins have been shown to possess antioxidant activity. Some of them have been developed as natural antioxidant formulations for food, cosmetic and other applications. Bangladeshi flora is a rich source of a range of plant species, many of which are medicinal plants, and have been used in the preparations of the Unani and Ayurvedic traditional medicines. There are no, or just a few, reports on any systematic screening of the extracts of Bangladeshi plants for free radical scavenging activity using DPPH assay available to date. As part of our on-going search for biological activity in Bangladeshi plants, Kadam (Anthocephalus chinensis), Goran (Ceriaps decandra), Swarnalata (Cuscuta reflexa), Gab (Diospyros peregrina), Sundari (Heritiera fomes), Dhundul (Xylocarpus granatum) and Possur (Xylocarpus mekongensis) have been selected for the assessment of their free radical scavenging activity, and studies on the contents of alkaloids, anthraqunones, flavonoids and tannins in these extracts. Most of these species have been used in traditional medicine in Bangladesh and other countries for the treatment of various illnesses ranging from common cold to cancer. All extracts, except the methanol extract of Cuscuta reflexa, displayed significant free radical scavenging activity in the DPPH assay $(RC_{50}$ values within the range of $2.75\;{\times}\;10^{-2}\;to\;4.7\;{\times}\;10^{-3}\;mg/mL)$. Among these extracts, the methanol extract of Xylocarpus granatum exhibited the most potent activity $(4.7\;{\times}\;10^{-3}\;mg/mL)$ and that of Cuscuta reflexa had the least activity $(1.64\;{\times}\;10^{-1}\;mg/mL)$. While none of these plants showed positive tests with Dragendorff's reagent, presence of low to moderate amounts of phenolic compounds, e.g. anthraquinones, flavonoids and tannins was evident in all of these plants, except for the methanolic extracts of C. reflexa and the barks of D. peregrina, which did not display any evidence for the presence of flavonoids and anthraquinones, respectively.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.291-298
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• 2017

Six dammarane-type triterpenoids, dammar-24-en-$3{\beta}$-ol (1), $3{\beta}$-epicabraleahydroxy lactone (2), (E)-25-hydroperoxydammar-23-en-$3{\beta}$,20-diol (3), dammar-24-en-$3{\beta}$,20-diol (4), $3{\beta}$-acetyl-20S,24S-epoxy-25-hydroxydammarane (5), and $3{\beta}$-epiocotillol (6) were isolated from the methanolic extract of the bark of Aglaia elliptica. The chemical structure were identified on the basis of spectroscopic evidence and by comparison with those spectra previously reported. Compounds 1 - 6 were isolated first time from this plant. Compounds 1 - 6, along with a known synthetic analog, cabraleone (7) were evaluated their cytotoxic activity against P-388 murine leukimia cells in vitro. Among those compounds $3{\beta}$-acetyl-20S,24S-epoxy-25-hydroxydammarane (5) showed strongest cytotoxic activity with $IC_{50}$ value of $8.02{\pm}0.06{\mu}M$.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.64-65
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• 2000

Cancer is a general term subjected to a series of malignant tumor diseases which may affect many different parts of the human body. These cancer diseases are characterized by a rapid and uncontrolled formation of abnormal cells in the body. Cancer chemotherapeutic agents can often provide the prolongation of life and occasionally cures. To date many kinds of compounds have been obtained from plants kingdom as anti-neoplastic and anti-cancerous agents. However, there is no special type of compounds for cancer therapy. In our laboratory, anti-tumor and cytotoxic screenings on higher plants collected in Japan, China, Korea, Southeast Asia and South America have been done by using Sarcoma 180 ascites in mice, P388 lymphocytic leukemia in mice, Chinese hamster lung V-79 cells, P388 cells and nasopharynx carcinoma (KB) cells. The family, Simaroubaceae consists of about 20 genera and 120 species, mainly shrubs and trees, distributed in tropical and subtropical country. Simaroubaceae is classified as RUTALES, together with Rutaceae, Burseraceae, Meliaceae, Malpighiaceae and Polygalaceae. The members differ from the Rutaceae in not containing oil glands. Bitter principles are a characteristic of the family, Simaroubaceae. The genera include Quassia (Simarouba) (40 spp.), Picrasma (Aeschrion) (6 spp.), Brucea (10 spp.), Soulamea (10 spp.), Ailanthus (10 spp.) and Perriera (1 spp.) etc.. Surinam quassia derived from Quassia amara growing in Guianas, north Brazil and Venezuela is used in traditional medicines for stomachic, anti-amoebic, anti-malarial and anti-anaemic properties. Also, various parts of a number of plants of the family Simaroubaceae have been used in traditional medicine for the treatment of a variety oi diseases including cancer, amoebic, dysentery and malaria. Then, the research has established that it is the quassinoid content of these plants that is responsible for above activities. In this meeting, I will present on anti-tumor and anti-malarial activities and their active principles of Simaroubaceae plants, Eurycoma longifolia, Ailanthus vilmoriniana, Simaba cedron and Brucea mullis which have been studied in our laboratory.