Comparison of chemical identities of natural plants and callus culture of Addrographis Paniculata & Munronia Pinnata

Abstract

Munronia pinnata belonging to the family Meliaceae and Andrographis paniculata ( family Acanthaceae ), are used in ayurvedic and traditional medicine in Sri Lanka for the treatment of fever, dysentery and skin diseases as a substitute for Swertia chiratta (Family Gentianaceae). Although M. pinnata is not described in the ayurvedic textbooks, but ayurvedic and traditional physicians use it as a substitute for Swertia chirata in the treatment of fever, dysentery and skin diseases. M. pinnata became an endangered plant in Sri Lanka due to over exploitation from wild for medicinal purposes. There is no program for its large-scale cultivation. Hence, there is an urgent need for a comparison of M. pinnata and A. paniculata as a substitute for Swertia chirata to prove their similarity, in terms of chemical and physico—chemical standards though they belong to different families. This study is based on the investigation of chemical identities of natural plants and callus cultures of M. pinnata and A. paniculata. There was no literature available on solvent systems to separate chemical identities of A. paniculata using TLC. Therefore, a number of solvents and different extraction methods were used in this study. Methanol: cyclohexane: chloroform (1:1:1) solvent system and hexane: acetone (6: 1) were found to be more suitable for separation of compounds in chloroform and ethyl acetate extracts. From the results obtained it was observed that many of the chemical constituents as judged by their chromatographic behavior, present in M. pinnata and A. paniculata were similar whereas a few were only present either in M. pinnata or A. paniculata. The only one chemical constituent detected in this study, common to both of natural plant and callus of M. pinnata was indicating by its chromatographic behaviour. According to the. results of this study anti-bacterial activity of A. paniculata and M. pinnata against E. coli, the traditional decoction concentration of A, paniculata showed the highest inhibition towards to E coli. While the concentration of M. pinnata showed a comparatively lower inhibition of E. coli growth than that of A. paniculata.