Title: Antimicrobial activity of sonchus arvensis

Biography:

Mahesh Pal received PhD degree in Plant Natural Product Chemistry in 1998 from CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Lucknow, India and Postdoctoral studies from State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resources in West China, Kunming Institute of Botany Kunming, China. He is serving as Principal Scientist in Phytochemistry Division at CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, a premier Government organization, Lucknow, India. He has published more than 65 research papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of ten reputed journals. Currently he is working on isolation and identification of bio-molecules for anticancer, antidiabetic and antimicrobial activity from Indian medicinal Plants.

Abstract

Sonchus arvensis (Asteraceae) is an annual plant that is easy to grow in rainy and sunshine areas, such as on riverbanks, ridges of rice field. S. arvensis is one of the medicinal herbs used in traditional medicines, in which the leaf extract was used as a diuretic, lithotriptic and anti urolithiasis agent; also indicated for fever, poisoning and swelling or abscess.  The plant is valued as a delicious and nutritional herb and has been used for the treatment of caked breasts, asthma, coughs, and other chest complaints and for calming the nerves. The fresh root of S. arvensis crushed and hydrodistilled for extraction of essential oil. The chemical composition of the essential oil obtained from the root of S. arvensis with yield of 0.18% (w/v), was analyzed by the GC and GC-MS. A total of 15 components, representing 97.2% of the oil, were identified. The oil composition is dominated by the presence of aromatic hydrocarbons accounting for 43.55% while as sesquiterpenes constitute 15.66% of the total oil composition. The principal components found was 9, 10-Dithiaanthacene constitute 43.55% of the total volatile constituents. Main identified constituents were β-Patchoulene (4.80%), Caryophyllene oxide (9.93%), Caryophyllene (4.24%), and β- Eudesmol (4.98%). The antibacterial activity of the volatile oils tested was more pronounced against Gram- positive than against Gram-negative bacteria. In conclusion, to the best of our knowledge the essential oil composition and its antimicrobial activity of the roots of S. arvensis is the first report.