Journal of Natural Remedies

B. N. Sinha , S. K. Bansal

Abstract

Diospyros is one of the most important genus of Ebanaceae family. Out of its more than 475 species, about 100 are well explored phytochemically. The medicinal uses and chemical constituents of various Diospyros species have been reviewed earlier by Mallavadhani et.al in 1998 [1]. The present review has been focused only on 9 species of Diospyros which are potent and are being used in folklore medicines of Jharkhand to cure diarrhea, fever and ulcer. This review is an extension of the work of Mallavadhani et.al with regards to these 9 species.These days Diospyros species are being explored as a cytotoxic agent to cure cancer and AIDS also.Considering these facts an attempt has been made to present a review on phytochemical and biological studies of Dispyros species along with their traditional uses.

Keywords

Diospyros Species, Phytochemical Studies, Biological Studies, Traditional Uses

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B. N. Sinha , S. K. Bansal , A. K. Pattnaik

Abstract

The Diospyros paniculata Dalz (Ebenaceae) has been used in folk medicine to treat several ailments including burns, gonorrhea, biliousness, blood poisoning, rheumatism and ulcer. In this work, we evaluated the phytochemical and antimicrobial activity of methanol extract (ME), some fractions of methanol extract [hexane (HF), chloroform (CF) and butanol fraction (BF)], as well as two pure compounds denoted as betulin (compound I), 7-methyl juglone (compound II) obtained from the stem bark of Diospyros paniculata. The compounds were isolated and identified by chromatographic and spectroscopic methods. The antimicrobial efficacy was tested against four types of bacteria (both Gram positive and Gram negative) and three types of fungi. The hexane fraction was found to be very efficient against Shigella dysenteriae responsible for diarrhoea, chloroform fraction exhibited efficacy against Candida albicans. Compound I, which seems to be main active principle of hexane fraction, showed promising antibacterial effect, being more potent than ciprofloxacin while compound II from chloroform fraction showed antifungal activity, comparable to that of nystatin. Minimum Inhibitory Concentration values of both compounds I, II were found to be 30 and 75 μg/ml, respectively.

Keywords

Diospyros Paniculata, Antibacterial, Antifungal, Betulin, 7-methyl Juglone, Ciprofloxacin, Nystatin

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