Bioactivity of Indian Legumes and their Conservation for Sustainable Utilization

Academic Paper from the year 2019 in the subject Environmental Sciences, The University of Mysore, course: BSc, MSc, PhD, language: English, abstract: The present study focuses on medicinal legumes such as Atylosia albicans (Wight & Arn.)Benth, Caesalpinia mimosoides (Lam), Derris scandens (Benth), Humboldtia brunonis (Wall), Indigofera cassioides (Roxb), Kingiodendron pinnatum (DC), and Tephrosia tinctoria (Baker), belonging to the family Fabaceae. These legumes were collected from different biogeographical regions of Western Ghats of Karnataka. Herbaria of these plants with taxonomic details are deposited in Biodiversity laboratory, Department of Environmental Science, University of Mysore, Mysore, Karnataka, India. Phytochemical screening, antimicrobial of these plants was carried out.

In the present investigation, bioautography method is used for the identification of bioactive molecule from the ethyl acetate extract of Kingiodendron pinnatum. This technique has been used for the detection of antimicrobial substances in many biological extracts. This method eliminates the need for the development of large numbers of plates in multiple solvent systems, reduces the amount of waste solvents for disposal, and substantially reduces the time needed to identify active compounds.

The results indicated that the isolated compound, 2-formyl-12-oxo-A-norcleroda-2, 13(16)-dien- 15-oic acid is a diterpene. The database search on phytochemicals present in the Kingiodendron pinnatum reported by earlier workers did not record the presence and biological activity of this diterpene, which is well described in the present study. This diterpene is a novel chemical entity described first time from the ethyl acetate extract of the plant Kingiodendron pinnatum. The study carried out on the seven legumes have clearly depicted their potential medicinal value. It is therefore necessary to give prime importance for their conservation. In view of this conservation of medicinal plants by using Ex-situ method was made for sustainable development. Of all the plants tested for seed germination and survival status Kingiodendron pinnatum showed the highest percentage of survival and acclimatization in field trials. No conservation strategies on these legumes are reported by earlier workers. In the present study efforts made to initiate the Ex-situ conservation of these plants revealed that establishment of seedling orchards are the base means of multiplication and conservation than any vegetative means.