Studies on chemical composition and medicinal property of Amomum aromaticum Roxb.- a rare species of cardamom found in North East India
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Date
2017-07
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AAU, Jorhat
Abstract
Wild cardamom (Ammomum aromaticum Roxb.) has been recently discovered
in large patches of forests of Tripura by forest department during 2014-15. It is
popularly known by the local tribals as „Beering‟ in their vernacular language, whose
stump is used in the local culinaries to induce aroma to the dishes. Botanically it
belongs to Zingiberaceae family. Processed dry fruit is the economic produce which can
be used largely as spice because of its sweet aroma and in the ayurvedic medicine
because of its medicinal value. As per the available literature it is mentioned to be found
in the eastern Himalayan track and Chittagong hill track. It is typically found in patches
along the banks of streams and streamlets. It is a notified forest product and can be
collected by the forest dwellers and after being processed (drying) on desi bhatta can be
sold out to the authorized traders who are dealing with aromatic oils and medicinal
products.
The present investigation was intended to study the chemical composition and
medicinal property of A. aromaticum Roxb.- a rare species of cardamom found in North
East India. The plant materials were collected from forest of Tripura- Kunjaban village,
Kalyanpur block, Khowai district and authenticated. The morphological data were taken
from the mature plant to narrate the botanical information. Leaf and seed samples of this
species were analysed for total alkaloids and total phenolics. The essential oil was
extracted from seed and the volatile components were identified. The antimicrobial and
antioxidant activity of the plant extracts were determined.
From the results of the present investigation it was observed that a significant
variation in the total phenolic content in the leaf and seed was obtained which were 12.7
mg/g and 10.1 mg/g, respectively. The alkaloid content of the leaf was found to be 1.27
g/100g and in case of seed it was 4.2 g/100g on dry weight basis. The essential oil was
extracted from both dried & raw capsules of the matured plant by hydro-distillation
method. The fresh moisture content in capsules at harvest was 75 per cent and the
moisture content reduced to 14 per cent in case of seeds which were sundried for 10
days. The essential oil content in seeds of A. aromaticum was found to be 2.0ml/100g in
raw fresh capsules and 1.0 ml/100g in sun dried capsules. GC-MS analysis of essential
oil revealed the presence of components such as. Myrcenol, D-limonene, P-mentha-1-
en-9-ol, Linalool, Isopulegol, P-menth-8-en-1-ol, Linalyl acetate, Sabinene hydrate, α-
terpineol, Eucalyptol, Terpinyl acetate, Menthol, Nanocosane and 2,3- pinanediol. In
addition, a few new components have also been detected such as 4,6 di-tertbutylresorcinol,
5-iodo-2,7-dioxa-tricyclo{4,3,1,0(3,8)}decane, triacontane, 1
monolinoleoyl glycerol, trimethyl silyl ether, eicosanoic acid, di-N-decylsulfone and
Pentatriacontane. The antimicrobial activity of different solvent extracts of leaf and
seeds of A. aromaticum Roxb was evaluated against. Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus
aureus and Bacillus subtilis. The essential oil extracted from the seeds did not show any
antimicrobial activity against E. coli, S. aureus and B. subtilis. The hydrodistilled
volatile oil from seeds and ethanol extracts of the seeds and leaves did not show
antimicrobial activity. On the other hand, the methanol extract of seeds showed
potential antimicrobial activity against these human pathogens. The antibiotic
streptomycin was used as positive control and 80 % methanol was used as negative
control in this experiment. The zone of inhibition for E. coli, S. aureus and B. subtilis.
was found to be 15.2 mm, 17.4 mm and 14.5 mm, respectively. The antioxidant activity
was determined in the methanol extract obtained from both leaf and seed of this species.
Both the extracts showed antioxidant activity. The percent inhibition of DPPH was
observed to be 74.1 for seed extract and 60.8 for leaf extract. The IC50 value for leaf and
seed extract were 0.815μg/ml, 0.641μg/ml respectively. Moreover, the genomic DNA
was extracted from the mature fresh leaf tissues of A. aromaticum Roxb and the
extraction procedure was standardized. The quantity of the extracted DNA as
determined by “Nanodrop-1000” (make: thermo-scientific) was 1282.09 ng/μl. The
purity of the extracted DNA was determined from the ratio of optical density at 260 and
280 nm respectively which was found to be 1.79 (A260:280).
Vast medicinal plant resources of North East India have not been fully
identified, inventoried and characterized. It is of utmost importance that these should be
characterized and evaluated in the light of modern scientific approaches, which may
lead to the development of some new drug molecules that can combat various side
effects of the commercially available synthetic drugs, and thereby reducing the cost of
medication. So a detail study about this traditionally underutilized herbal spice species-
Amomum aromaticum Roxb. will help to develop new drugs and a number of herbal
tonic or feed additives. More studies will be required to find out the favourable
conditions to achieve the full potential of the plant in order to establish this plant as one
of the important spice species.