S. kunthianus (Neela kurinji) is a shrub in the grasslands of Western Ghats in India. The Nilgiris, which literally means the blue mountains got its name from the purplish blue flowers of Neela kurinji that blossoms gregariously once in twelve years. S. kunthianus is well known for its medicinal properties. It was reported to possess many biological activities including anti-inflammatory and anti-osteoarthritic, analgesic, antioxidant, antibioflim, enzyme inhibitor, central nervous depressant, antigiardial, antifungal, antibacterial, antiseptic, antimicrobial, cytotoxicity and protect skin against UV. 8-14 However, there is no scientific standards or pharmacognostic parameters are yet available to determine the quality of this crude drug. Thus, the present study was designed to evaluate the pharmacognostic, physicochemical and phytochemical parameters of various parts of S. kunthianus.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) report 9 , around 90% of the acute hepatitis is mainly due to viruses and now ranked as seventh prominent cause of mortality worldwide. There are five major hepatitis viruses such as type A, B, C, D and E, among these, Hepatitis B and C infections often results to chronic liver disease and its complications like cirrhosis and liver cancer. WHO estimated that globally there are 257 million persons with hepatitis B and every year up to 900000 people succumb to hepatitis B-related deaths. Also estimated that 71 million people are infected with hepatitis C globally, and the infection that kills nearly 400000 people in every year. 9 The antioxidant activity or the inhibition of the generation of free radicals is important in ABSTRACT Background: Strobilanthes kunthianus Nees T Anders (Neela kurinji) is a shrub in the grasslands of Nilgiris, Western Ghats in India. It is well known for many biological properties including antioxidant. However, there is no in-vivo antioxidant and hepatoprotective activities has been carried out previously on S. kunthianus. Objectives: The present study was aimed to evaluate the antioxidant and hepatoprotective activities of methanolic flower extract of S. kunthianus (MFESK) against carbon tetrachloride (CCl 4 )-induced hepatotoxicity in experimental rats. Materials and Methods: The Wistar rats were divided into six groups comprising six animals to each. Group I was served as normal control and group II as CCl 4 treated. Both these groups were received sodium CMC (0.3%, 5 ml/kg). Groups III, IV and V animals were treated with MFESK at different dose levels (100, 150 and 200 mg/kg). Group VI was treated with standard silymarin (100 mg/kg). All these treatments were given orally for eight consecutive days. On the 8 th day of treatment, except the normal group I, all the other group of animals from III to VI were received CCl 4 in liquid paraffin (1:1, 1 ml/kg, i.p., single dose) after 1 h of the vehicle. On the 9 th day, the animals were anesthetized and blood was collected from the abdominal artery, then the serum was separated and used for the biochemical estimations. Serum marker enzymes such as ASAT, ALAT, ALP, TGL, CR, TP, TC, TB and albumin were measured using Ecoline kits by using autoanalyzer. Further, blood serum and the supernatant solution of homogenized liver and kidney were used for the estimation of antioxidant parameters such as CAT, SOD and TBARS by spectrophotometrically. Results: The administration of CCl 4 caused a significant increase (P<0.001) in the levels of ASAT, ALAT, ALP, TGL, TC, TB and TBARS and decrease in the levels of CR, TP, Albumin, CAT and SOD in serum. A significant (P<0.001 and P<0.01) restoration of these values towards the normal level was observed in all the three tested doses of MFESK. Similar results were observed for CAT, SOD and TBARS in both liver and kidney tissues. These results designated the strong antioxidant and hepatoprotective nature of MFESK. The histopathological investigation of liver an...

Background: Strobilanthes kunthianus Nees T Anders (S. kunthianus, Neela kurinji) is a shrub in the grasslands of Western Ghats in India. The Nilgiris, which literally means the blue mountains got its name from the purplish blue flowers of Neelakurinji that blossoms gregariously once in twelve years. It is well known for its biological properties. However, so far there is no detailed antioxidant and cytotoxic studies has been carried out. Objective: The present study aimed to evaluate in-vitro antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of various parts of S. kunthianus extracts. Methods: Fourteen extracts were prepared in different parts of S. kunthianus including stem, leaves, flowers and roots. All the extracts were examined for in-vitro antioxidant and cytotoxic activities using standard methods. The total phenol content was estimated by Folin Ciocalteau method. Results: The crude methanol flower extract was found to contain very high total phenol content among all the extracts. Among the tested extracts, the ethyl acetate extracts of root and stem showed potent in-vitro antioxidant activity, when compared to ascorbic acid in ABTS method. These extracts showed better activity than other successive extracts of root and stem. In case of methanol extracts, the crude extracts showed potent antioxidant activity in ABTS, H2O2, and total antioxidant capacity methods. The crude methanol flower extract was found to be the most potent among the methanol extracts. Many natural products have served as anticancer agents in the treatment and also as lead compounds for further research. All the extracts were tested for their cytotoxic activity against Hep-2 and HeLa cell lines. But all the extracts showed weak activity in the tested cell lines. Conclusion: S. kunthianus merits further investigation in animal models to confirm its antioxidant and anticancer properties and to isolate the phytoconstituents that are responsible for their biological activities.

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An electrothermal IA-9200 was used to determine melting points of the isolated compounds. IR spectrum was obtained from Perkin Elmer FTIR 1275X. The EIMS spectrum was obtained from a 5989 B MS spectrometer from Hewlett Packard. A Bruker AM500 FT-NMR spectrometer was used to record 1 H NMR and 13 C NMR spectra, and TMS was used as an internal standard. Column chromatography was performed using silica gel Merck).