Environmental impact of secondary metabolite contents in Eupatorium birmanicum.

Eupatorium birmanicum is a rare, annual and perennial wild shruby plant found in Manipur and border of Myanmar. This species has great ethnomedicinal importance due to presence of secondary metabolites (phenolics, terpenoids and eupatorine alkaloid compounds). Its extracted juice and chewing of leaves cures influenza, fever, jaundice, insect bite, milk-sickness, common cold and cough, bleeding and dysentery etc. This study is focussed on the environmental impact of secondary metabolite contents present in this species. Alkaloid content was more in the young leaves and buds and in the parts of the plants collected from clean environments than polluted one. The activity of enzymes responsible for the synthesis of alkaloid is also inhibited by the pollutants present in the polluted environments.