Total Phenol Content and In Vitro Antioxidant Potential of Helicanthus elastica (Desr.) Danser-A Less-explored Indian Mango Mistletoe.

Natural products are an important source of antioxidant molecules like tannins, phenolic compounds, flavonoids, etc., Helicanthus elastica (Desr.) Danser (Loranthaceae) is one such plant belonging to the category of mistletoe, and grows commonly on the mango trees in India.

Antimicrobial Potential of Helicanthus elastica (Desr.) Danser - A less explored Indian mistletoe Growing on Mango Trees.

Helicanthus elastica (Desr.) Danser (Loranthaceae) is a less-known medicinally important mistletoe species occurring in India. It is used to check abortion, and also in vesical calculi and kidney affections.

Antimicrobial activity of essential oil of leonotis nepetaefolia.

The essential oil of Leonotis nepetaefolia (Family - Labiatae) was tested for its antibacterial activity against both Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria and found to be moderately active excepting Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The essential oil also was found to be inhibitory to dermatophytic fungi and suppressive to other aerial fungi. Hence the oil may be quite useful in skin infection due to dermatophytes even with secondary bacterial infections.

Standardisation of siddha drugs.

Siddha system is the ancient Dravidian system of medicine presently practiced predominantly in South India. In practice, generally the plants used are often in the compound form to which either herbs, metals, minerals and animals products are added. This paper attempts to describe the need for standardizing the drugs since the efficacy of medicines depends on their genuineness, indicating the methodology to be adopted for standardization.

Standardisation of karpurasava.

Asavas and aristhas are medicines prepared by fermentation. In some medicines alcohol produced by fermentation is distilled and added to the powdered drugs for a fixed period, filtered and the filtrate is used as medicines.Karpurasava is prepared by distilling the alcohol.