Shalini Srivastava

The present communication warrants the presence of significant anti-melanoma bioefficacy in the native bark ethanolic extract (65.15%) of the plant Madhuca longifolia. A family of seven flavonoids has been ascertained in the bark ethanolic extract of the target plant using HPLC-ESI-QTOF-MS analysis as bioactive constituents. Statistically, significant (p<0.05)enhancement in the anti-melanoma bioefficacy (85.15%) has been successfully attempted, reaching near to the level of reference (Cyclophosphamide drug) using bioactive principle (flavonoid) loaded gold nanoparticles (F@AuNp). In vitro anti-melanoma bioefficacy has been measured against two melanoma cell lines (B16F10 and A375) using MTT and SRB bioassays. Noticeably, the native bark extract and F@AuNp did not show any toxicity towards normal lymphocyte cells, highlighting their safe and non-toxic nature. The pathway of observed anti-melanoma efficacy of (F@AuNp) has been discussed based on our experimental findings on percent inhibition in mice and human melanoma cell lines, production of intracellular reactive oxygen species, the release of nitric oxide, and increase caspase-3 activities. The native bark extract of the plant M. longifolia and its bioactive principle loaded gold nanoparticles possess bright prospects for the development of complimentary herbal nanomedicine for scaling-up the anti-melanoma bioefficacy.

The essential oils of seed and whole plant of Coriandrum sativum were examined for their in vitro antioxidant activities which were found to be higher compared to different extracts of this plant. A simple, precise and specific HPTLC method has been developed for the determination of important phytomarkers of essential oils. The proposed method was validated in terms of linearity, precision, accuracy, limits of detection and quantification.

Adulteration in food stuff has been regarded as a major social evil and is a mind-boggling problem in society. In this study, a rapid, reliable and cost effective High Performance thin layer Chromatography (HPTLC) has been established for the estimation of oxytocin (adulterant) in vegetables, fruits and milk samples. Oxytocin is one of the most frequently used adulterant added in vegetables and fruits for increasing the growth rate and also to enhance milk production from lactating animals. The standardization of the method was based on simulation parameters of mobile phase, stationary phase and saturation time. The mobile phase used was MeOH: Ammonia (pH 6.8), optimized stationary phase was silica gel and saturation time of 5 min. The method was validated by testing its linearity, accuracy, precision, repeatability and limits of detection and quantification. Thus, the proposed method is simple, rapid and specific and was successfully employed for quality and quantity monitoring of oxytocin content in edible products.