Oleic Acid Rich Tree-borne Oilseeds from Forests of Assam, India.

North East India is a home of tremendous and versatile vegetative oil bearing materials because of the subtropical climatic conditions. Screening, characterization, and domestication of high yielding treeborne oilseeds rich in oleic acid and tocopherol are highly demandable from industrial aspects. As very few studies have been carried out in this regard from this region, our investigation aims to exploit new sources of tree-borne oilseeds rich in omega fatty acids for edible and non-edible purposes from both known and unknown plants. Six lesser-known tree-borne oilseeds were characterized based on oil content, tocopherol composition and metal content. The fatty oil was found more in Dysoxylum procerum (50%). The dominating fatty acid was oleic acid ranged between 38.4 to 64%. The oil of Terminalia bellirica showed high content of tocopherol (0.05%). Among eleven metals (Ca, Cu, Zn, Mg, Mn, Fe, Pb, Cd, As, Na, K) in all the six fatty oil contents, Pb and Cu showed high concentrations as compared to the codex standard while Fe values of all the oil contents were below the permissible concentrations.

Chemical composition and antibacterial activity of essential oil from fruit of Micromelum integerrimum (Buch.-Ham. ex DC.) Wight & Arn. ex M. Roem.

The essential oil extracted from fruit of Micromelum integrrimum were evaluated through gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy. 52 compounds were identified from the fruit oil representing 99.98% of the oil. The major components of the total fruit oil are monoterpene hydrocarbons (72.23%), oxygenated monoterpenes (14.78%) and sesquiterpene (11.54%) which were predominated by terpinolene (32.21%), α-pinene (17.24%), ß-pinene (17.24%), and camphene (4.05%). Moreover, other components that present in 1.45% were aromatic compounds, fatty acid, etc. The essential oil exhibited broad spectrum antimicrobial activity which is concentration dependent and 100 µL of the fruit oil showed the inhibition zones ranging from 7-16 mm. Fruit oil exhibited strong inhibition activity compared to standard anti-bacterial drug neomycin B (22 mm) against Bacillus subtilis MTCC 441 and Bacillus spizizenii ATCC 6633. This is the first hand report on the chemical profiles and promising anti-microbial activity of Micromelum integrrimum fruit essential oil towards Basillus Sp.

Screening of some lesser known tree-borne oilseed plants from North-East India for their oil content and major fatty acid components.

Forest of North-East India is rich in a variety of tree borne oilseeds and there were no serious efforts to exploit the less known oilseeds of the forest origin. Considering the vast plant wealth and with an objective to explore these untapped potentialities of oilseed resources of NE India, a research program was undertaken. The present communication is based on the investigation of seeds of 14 lesser known plant species for fats and oils. The screened plant species exhibited oil yield ranging from 4.71% to 48.43% on dry weight basis. Alseodaphne andersonii showed significant amount of tocols while Garcinia xanthochymus showed significant amount of phytosterol. Gas liquid chromatography analysis of methyl ester extracted fatty acid indicated dominant fraction of Oleic acid in 6 numbers of species, followed by Linoleic acid in 3 species, Lauric acid in 3 species, and Palmitic acid in 2 species. The majority of the species (9 species) showed higher amount of unsaturated fatty acid content in the oils which suggested that the species may serve as valuable raw materials for vegetable oil which can be explored as substitute for industrial feasibility while restshowed higher amount of saturated fatty acids which suggested that these species may serve as important industrial by-products.

Analysis of genetic diversity of Persea bombycina "Som" using RAPD-based molecular markers.

The utility of RAPD markers in assessing genetic diversity and phenetic relationships in Persea bombycina, a major tree species for golden silk (muga) production, was investigated using 48 genotypes from northeast India. Thirteen RAPD primer combinations generated 93 bands. On average, seven RAPD fragments were amplified per reaction. In a UPGMA phenetic dendrogram based on Jaccard's coefficient, the P. bombycina accessions showed a high level of genetic variation, as indicated by genetic similarity. The grouping in the phenogram was highly consistent, as indicated by high values of cophenetic correlation and high bootstrap values at the key nodes. The accessions were scattered on a plot derived from principal correspondence analysis. The study concluded that the high level of genetic diversity in the P. bombycina accessions may be attributed to the species' outcrossing nature. This study may be useful in identifying diverse genetic stocks of P. bombycina, which may then be conserved on a priority basis.