Natural Products Biotechnology Group, Agricultural and Food Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur - 721302, West Bengal, India.
National Seminar of Plant Physiology ‘Physiological Basis for Improving Productivity of Agricultural, Horticultural and Medicinal Plants’. December 27–29, 2004. University of Pune, Pune, India. Abstract No.148, (2004).
Hemidesmus indicus (Asclepiadaceae) is an important medicinal plant known for multipurpose uses since ancient times. The plant is a perennial creeper, woody fragrant rootstock. A phenolic compound, 2-hydroxy-4-methoxy-benzaldehyde and its corresponding benzoic acid derivatives are responsible for the fragrance in root organs. These unusual phenolic-derivatives are presumably derived from phenylpropanoid chain-cleavage. We aim to purify this phenolic compound, 2-hydroxy-4-methoxy-benzaldehyde from root organs of H. indicus. Interestingly, the structure of 2-hydroxy-4-methoxy-benzaldehyde closely resembles that of vanillin. The scent is retained even on storage in −20°C for three months. Preliminary phytochemical analysis and TLC fingerprint profile of the extract was established in our laboratory to characterise the extract, which showed the presence of 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzoic acid, 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzaldehy and ferulic acid. For purification, Hemidesmus root samples were collected from the local agricultural farm and 10 g of fresh roots were extracted in organic solvent. Down stream processing of the crude extract was done by LH-20 column chromatography, specific for purification of natural products. The pure aqueous solution of the compound was concentrated by lyophilization. The Purity of the sample was tested by HPLC and ESI-MS techniques.
