Objective: Erythrina indica belongs to the family Leguminoseae and it is a medium-sized, spiny, deciduous tree normally growing up to 6-9 m tall. It is also known as “Indian coral tree” or “Tiger’s clow” or “variegated coral tree” or “Kalyana murungai” or “ Mulmurukku” (in Tamil). It is a native of costal forest communities from East Africa, through southeast to Australia. In India, it is distributed in coast forests from Bombay to Malabar . The objective of this study is to explore the phytochemistry and the antioxidant potential of methanolic root extract of Erythrina indica which is considered traditionally as an important medicinal plant. Methods: The preliminary phytochemical analysis was done to find out the presence of various bioactive compounds. In vitro antioxidant analysis of methanolic root extract was performed by 1,1diphenyl, 2 picryl hydrazyl assay, nitric oxide assay, superoxide dismutase assay, ferric reducing antioxidant power assay. Results: The methanolic root extract showed the presence of various phytoconstituents such as flavonoids, tannins, terpenoids, saponins, coumarins and carbohydrates. Besides it also possess strong antioxidant activity. Conclusions: It was concluded that Erythrina indica root possessed a wide range of pharmacologically important phytoconstituents which exhibited strong antioxidant activity.

Objective: The present investigation was to evaluate the possible anti-diabetic effect of mangiferin from Salacia chinensis (S. chinensis) on the activities of kidney carbohydrate metabolic enzymes in chemically induced diabetic rats. Methods: Diabetes was induced by streptozotocin (STZ) in adult male rats, as a single intraperitoneal injection at a dose of 55 mg/kg body weight. The STZ-induced diabetic rats were treated by mangiferin and glibenclamide (positive control drug) for 30 days. At the end of the experiment, the rats were sacrificed and carbohydrate metabolic enzyme activities were analyzed in the kidney. Results: Diabetic control rats showed a significant increase in the level of fasting blood glucose and also increase the activities of carbohydrate metabolic enzymes in kidney on successive days of the experiment as compared with their basal values. Daily oral administration of mangiferin showed a significant decrease in the blood glucose when compared to diabetic control. The anti-hyperglycemic effect was obtained with the dose of 40 mg/kg b.wt. In addition, treatment of mangiferin shows alteration in kidney carbohydrate metabolic enzymes including gluconeogenic enzymes like glucose-6-phosphatase and fructose-1,6-disphosphatase. These results were comparable with positive control drug, glibenclamide. Conclusions: The results obtained in this study provide evidence of the anti-diabetic potential of mangiferin, mediated through the regulation of carbohydrate key metabolic enzyme activities.

Objective: To evaluate the antioxidant and anticancer potential of different fractions of bark of Costus pictus using various in vitro antioxidant assay systems. Methods: In this study, assay like DPPH radical, superoxide anion radical scavenging activity, nitric oxide scavenging activity, hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity, metal chelating activity and reducing power were used. The concentrations of total phenolic and flavonoids were also calculated for the extracts.Result:pictus. This study suggested that, among the three fractions, the chloroform fraction possesses high antioxidant activity which might be helpful in preventing or slowing the progress of various oxidative stress related disorders. Moreover, all fractions possess potent anticancer properties against colon cancer cells of HT29 and lung carcinoma cells of A549. Conclusions: It can be concluded that the extract of the bark of C. pictus has potential natural antioxidant and this can be used in food industries. There are few reports on the antioxidant capacity of bark of C. pictus and the mechanism of different fractions of bark of C. pictus as antioxidative agents is still not fully understood. Hence further research is underway to analyse and isolate the active compounds responsible for the antioxidant and anticancer activity of different fractions of the bark of C.pictus. The present study elucidated for the first time the antioxidant property of bark of C.