Abstract

Since prehistoric times, medicinal plants have been discovered and used in ayurvedic and traditional medicine practice. Medicinal plants contain numerous chemical compound which acts as preventive, curative, protective agent against various disease. One of the medicinal plants used for memory enhancement is Celastrus paniculatus (CP), which belongs to the family Celastracea. CP is also called as Jyotishmati or Malkangani in ayurveda and Sanskrit. CP is used in ancient traditional medical treatment for various ailments. Celastrus paniculatus contains phytochemicals, phospholipids, nutrients which are remarked to have distinct health benefit. Role of phospholipids embarked its potency in preventing and treating neurological diseases. The objective of the current study is to evaluate CP seeds for its physicochemical and pharmacognostical, properties including fatty acid composition and estimation of important phospholipids such as phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE). Physicochemical evaluation was done for seeds and pharmacognostical analysis was done for seed oil. One of the important observations found was absence of phospholipids viz. PC and PE. Saponification value was found to be 284 and acid value of oil was found to be less than 2. The results obtained will serve as parameters for the standardization of seeds and fixed oil obtained from seeds. Furthermore, the results will remark as a potential nutraceutical and economical utilisation of CP seeds as a new source of edible oils and to treat dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson disease etc.

Key words: Celastrus paniculatus, Fatty acids, Edible oil, Medicinal plant