RESUMO
Genus Swertia under the family Gentianaceae is morphologically and taxonomically distinct with about 14 species from Sikkim Himalayan region. A Chrono-spatial floral phenology study was conducted on Swertia bimaculata from 1580 to 2400 m altitude in West Sikkim Himalayan region. The floral phenology was studied in a field nursery at 1200 m altitude and spatial floral phenology was studied over a 1580-2400 m altitudinal range in the West Sikkim Himalayan region. Detailed study on flowering pattern and seed formation in S. bimaculata revealed late flowering at 1200 m compared to 2400 m. Plants at the lower altitude showed prolonged and variable flowering from September to November and seed formation from November to December. During September to mid-October, pentamerous and bisexual flowers were observed, followed by 9-16 % tetramerous until November; and up to 24 % trimerous and 10 % bimerous until the end of flowering season in December. By the end of December, 43 % of flowers become stamen-less (monoclinous). Less than 2 % seed formation was observed in stamen-less flowers. The temporal phenological behavior reveals a successful reproductive adaptive strategy, depicting pentamerous flowers during favorable conditions, reducing to tetramerous, followed by tri- & bimerous with female (monoclinous) flowers until the end of flowering with stressful conditions, suggesting its suitability as a stress indicator to the changing climatic conditions. Along the altitudinal range floral anomalies from the usually observed pentamerous (and very rare hexamerous) flowers in favorable conditions change to tetramerous and/or trimerous, as the environmental conditions become more stressful, suggesting that the changes in this species could be used as an indicator of stress in changing climatic conditions.
RESUMO
The current work investigates the chemodiversity, in vitro antioxidant, α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitory potential of Cinnamomum tamala leaf essential oil collected from different localities of East Khasi Hills District of Meghalaya, India. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of all the extracted leaf essential oils facilitated the identification of several compounds in a variable range along with eugenol as the major component (74.79-95.12 %). CT8 exhibited the highest antioxidant activity (IC50 = 11.23 ± 0.27 µg/mL for DPPH and IC50 = 21.54 ± 0.37 µg/mL for ABTS) among all the evaluated EO compounds. The results showed that the FRAP and ORAC values for CT8 were 83.26 ± 1.92 µM trolox/g oil and 70.29 ± 1.90 ascorbic acid equivalents (AAE)/g of oil. α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibition were highest in sample CT8 with IC50 values of 3.62 ± 0.42 µg/mL and 16.29 ± 0.32 µg/mL respectively. Caryophyllene, cyclohexene, 1, 5, 5-trimethyl-6-(2-propenylidene), germacrene D and eugenol showed strong binding potential toward α-amylase and α-glucosidase. It concluded that the chemodiversity and antidiabetic potential of C. tamla oil from Khasi Hills have never been studied. It can be taken as a dietary supplement as an antioxidant and antidiabetic to control blood glucose.
RESUMO
In the present scenario, alternative energy sources are required to achieve the future economic prosperity where shortage of fossil fuels will be a limiting factor and hamper the global economic growth. Therefore, interest in biofuel is increasing continuously. The best way of sustainable development is fossil fuel supplementation with biodiesel to reduce the fossil fuel demand. Biodiesel is a clean burning, ester-based, oxygenated fuel derived from natural and renewable sources. Till now, majority of the people have worked on the biodiesel derived from edible oil. Instead of using edible oil, non-edible oil needs to be explored as feedstock for biofuel because half of the world's population is unable to afford the food oil as feedstock for fuel production. Looking at the significance of biodiesel and the resources of biofuel, in this paper, a comparative exhaustive study has been reported with for three important plants, namely Jatropha curcas, Pongemia pinnata and Balanites aegyptiaca. These plants were selected based on their biodiesel potential, availability, cultivation practices and general information available. The present study involves scientometric publications, comparison of fatty acid composition and biodiesel parameters. We have also compared climatic conditions for the growth of the plants, economic feasibility of biodiesel production and other ecological services. The study paves a way for sustainable solution to policy makers and foresters looking for selection of plant species as bioenergy resource.