Research Projects

This collaborative program is one-of-a-kind attempt for evaluating medicinal properties of northeast plants simultaneously in nematodes and in mice, concurrently probing multiple pathological manifestations of metabolic derangements, including inflammatory colitis, muscle wasting, and aging. We hope that the proposed program will direct northeast-based plant-derived substance in lessening metabolic deregulations and associated ailments, while offering important mechanistic insights on their mode of action. In particular, it will be interesting to note if certain plant formulations more efficaciously intervene at specific ailments associated with metabolic dysregulations than others. In the end, we feel that the proposed experimental pipeline will also be beneficial for implementing a program of an even larger scale to explore a wider spectrum of traditional Indian medicines in the future.

Plant species namely Dillenia indica L. (Imphal East, Manipur), Garcinia xanthochymus Hook.f. ex T.Anderson (Lamshang, Manipur), Paris polyphylla Sm. (Makhel, Manipur), Swertia chirayita (Roxb.) H.Karst. (East Khasi Hills, Meghalaya), and Allium hookeri Thwaites (Thoubal, Manipur) were collected and authenticated by the Botanist, IBSD, Imphal, Manipur. The collected plant samples from D. Indica (Fruit), G. Xanthochymus (Fruit), P. polyphylla (Rhizome), S. Chirayita (Aerial part), and A. hookeri (Aerial part) were shade dried till constant weight obtained. The coarsely powdered plant samples were extracted using 70% methanol by maceration method for 72h (24h x 3) or by Soxhlet method using methanol. The obtained filtrate was concentrated using rotary vacuum evaporator (IKA, Japan) and lyophilized (iGene Labserve, New Delhi, India) to get dried powdered extract. Then it was transferred to a sealed airtight glass container and finally stored at 4°C till further use. The total flavonoid concentration of extracts was determined using an aluminum chloride complex-forming assay, using quercetin as a standard as mentioned by Shirazi et al., 2014. Where Folin-Ciocalteu method was used to measure the total phenolic content following the method as described by Singleton et al., 1999. The content of total phenolics and flavonoids present in the extracts were expressed in terms of gallic acid equivalent (mg of GAE/g of extract) and quercetin equivalent (mg of QUE/g of dry extract) respectively.