The increasing prevalence of environmental pollution, especially soil contamination with heavy metals has led to their uptake in the human food chains through plant parts. Accumulation and magnification of heavy metals in human tissues through consumption of herbal remedies can cause hazardous impacts on health. Therefore, chemical profiling of nine heavy metals (Mn, Cr, Pb, Fe, Cd, Co, Zn, Ni and Hg) was undertaken in stem and leaf samples of ten medicinal plants (Acacia nilotica, Bacopa monnieri, Commiphora wightii, Ficus religiosa, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Hemidesmus indicus, Salvadora oleoides, Terminalia bellirica, Terminalia chebula and Withania somnifera) collected from environmentally diverse regions of Haryana and Rajasthan states in North-Western India. Concentration of all heavy metals, except Cr, was within permissible limits in the tested stem and leaf samples. Leaf samples had consistently more Cr compared to respective stem samples with highest concentration in leaf samples of Bacopa monnieri (13.19 ± 0.0480 ppm) and stem samples of Withania somnifera (4.93 ± 0.0185 ppm) both collected from Bahadurgarh (heavy industrial area), Haryana. This amount was beyond the permissible limit of 2.0 ppm defined by WHO for raw herbal material. Other two most perilous metals Pb (2.64 ± 0.0260) and Cd (0.04 ± 0.0274) were also recorded in Bahadurgarh region, although below permissible limits. Concentration of Hg remained below detectable levels in all the leaf and stem samples tested. These results suggested that cultivation of medicinal plants and other dietary herbs should be curtailed near environmentally polluted especially industrial areas for avoidance of health hazards.

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Guggulsterone is an aromatic steroidal ketonic compound obtained from vertical rein ducts and canals of bark of Commiphora wightii (Arn.) Bhandari (Family - Burseraceae). Owing to its multifarious medicinal and therapeutic values as well as its various other significant bioactivities, guggulsterone has high demand in pharmaceutical, perfumery and incense industries. More and more pharmaceutical and perfumery industries are showing interest in guggulsterone, therefore, there is a need for its quantitative determination in existing natural populations of C. wightii. Identification of elite germplasm having higher guggulsterone content can be multiplied through conventional or biotechnological means. In the present study an effort was made to estimate two isoforms of guggulsterone i.e. E and Z guggulsterone in raw exudates of 75 accessions of C. wightii collected from three states of North-western India viz. Rajasthan (19 districts), Haryana (4 districts) and Gujarat (3 districts). Extracted steroid rich fraction from stem samples was fractionated using reverse-phase preparative High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) coupled with UV/VIS detector operating at wavelength of 250 nm. HPLC analysis of stem samples of wild as well as cultivated plants showed that the concentration of E and Z isomers as well as total guggulsterone was highest in Rajasthan, as compared to Haryana and Gujarat states. Highest concentration of E guggulsterone (487.45 μg/g) and Z guggulsterone (487.68 μg/g) was found in samples collected from Devikot (Jaisalmer) and Palana (Bikaner) respectively, the two hyper-arid regions of Rajasthan, India. Quantitative assay was presented on the basis of calibration curve obtained from a mixture of standard E and Z guggulsterones with different validatory parameters including linearity, selectivity and specificity, accuracy, auto-injector, flow-rate, recoveries, limit of detection and limit of quantification (as per norms of International conference of Hormonization). Present findings revealed the role of environmental factors on biosynthesis of guggulsterone isomers under natural conditions.

The oleo-gum resin of Commiphora wightii (Arn.) Bhandari, a pharmacologically important balsamiferous woody shrub, has been used in treating various ailments and disorders since ancient times (2000 B.C.) due to the presence of steroidal compound guggulsterone. Two bioactive isomers of guggulsterone, E and Z, are responsible for lipid-and cholesterollowering and anti-cancerous activities. Further, guggul has been approved as food supplement by US-FDA as well as Council of Europe. Indiscriminate harvest of C. wightii from wild with negligible conservation efforts has lead to its inclusion in IUCN assemblage of endangered plant species. For identification of high guggulsterone yielding ecotypes of C. wightii, using high-performance thin-layer chromatographic (HPTLC) analysis, stem samples were collected from 50 plants from eleven locations in arid tracts of Haryana, Gujarat and Rajasthan. Dried, powdered material was subjected to extraction with petroleum ether using soxhlet apparatus. Samples were spotted on precoated activated silica plates (60F-254) and were developed using toluene-acetone (9:1 v/v) as mobile phase. The analysis was carried out in the absorbance mode at 250 nm using HPTLC scanner. The regression analysis data for the calibration plots for E and Z guggulsterone showed good linear relationship with R 2 = 1 and 0.9897, respectively. Highest concentration of guggulsterone E (284 lg/g dry wt) was found in the accession collected from Palana, Bikaner whereas highest guggulsterone Z concentration (89.5 lg/g dry wt) was found in the accession collected from CAZRI, Jodhpur.