BIOCHEMICAL AND In Vitro INVESTIGATION OF Acorus calamus FOR ITS PHARMACOLOGICAL IMPORTANCE AND CONSERVATION

Abstract

Various bioactivities of different solvent extracted samples from the leaves and rhizomes of Acorus calamus were performed in this study which confirmed its enormous medicinal and economic importance. The results revealed that these bioactivities were affected by the plant part used and the solvents employed for extraction. This might be due to the uneven distribution of active ingredients in these plant parts and the different polarities of the solvents used. Furthermore, disc diffusion and well diffusion assays used in the study also affected the bioactivity of these extracted samples. Additionally, these results confirmed inferior bioactivities of the commercially available rhizome in comparison to its shade-dried counterpart. A novel, cost-effective and indigenous micro-propagation protocol for the endangered A. calamus was also successfully developed. Shade-dried rhizome showed comparatively more antibacterial potential (from 19.42% to 86.51% activity), followed by leaves (from 18.45% to 82.71% activity) and then commercially available rhizome (from 18.57% to 48.38% activity). On the other hand, this rhizome was only slightly better than leaves with regard to antifungal potential while its commercially available counterpart revealed insignificant antifungal potency. The leaves, however, showed more profound anti-yeast potential (from 43.53% to 93.33% activity) than both the shade-dried (from 47.06% to 73.80% activity) and commercially available rhizomes (from 43.33% to 59.73% activity), and also exhibited better radical scavenging ability (from 74.90% to 98.09% activity) with ethyl acetate discovered as the solvent of choice for the extraction of antioxidants. HPLC analysis revealed that Gallic acid was present in comparatively more amount in the shade-dried rhizome (38.42 mg.g-1) and that butanol and ethyl acetate were more suitable for its extraction from all parts of the plant. A. calamus mediated green synthesis of silver and gold nanoparticles was also successfully accomplished whose preliminary antimicrobial screening revealed promising results. A novel and cost-effective micro-propagation protocol was optimized for the plant and Tang II (Natural Growth Substances) in a concentration of 20 ml.L-1 was found as the best growth regulator for both shooting and rooting of the explants. Keywords: Acorus calamus, antibacterial, antifungal, anti-yeast, antioxidant, HPLC, Gallic acid, nanoparticles, micro-propagation.