Ayurveda classifies the whole human population in three major constitutions as Vata, Pitta, Kapha and their possible combinations. Their homologous relation to human genetic structure needs to be studied for validation. If validated, our hypothesis would have far reaching implications for pharmacogenomics, modern genetics, human health, and Ayurveda.

Phyllanthus emblica LINN. Syn: Emblica officinalis GAERTN. (Indian Gooseberry) family-Euphorbiaceae fruit is one of the top selling botanicals having diverse applications in healthcare, food and cosmetic industry. It has been well studied for immunomodulatory, 1) anticancer, 2) antioxidant 3) and antiulcer 4) activities. An official drug of Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia 5) and Indian Herbal Pharmacopoeia, 6) it forms a main ingredient of various multi-component formulations. Correct genotype identification of the plant material, therefore, remains important for protection of both the public health and industry. Chemoprofiling and morphological evaluation are routinely used for identification of the botanical. Chemical complexity and lack of therapeutic marker(s) are some of the limitations associated with chemical approach while subjective bias in morphological evaluation limits its use.Molecular biology offers various techniques that can be applied for plant identification.7) Genetic polymorphism in medicinal plants has been widely studied which helps in distinguishing plants at inter-and/or intra-species level.8,9) PCRbased methods including Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) 10) can be effectively used for authentication of the medicinal plant material. Further, development of more specific, sensitive and reproducible markers like RAPD based Sequence Characterized Amplified Region (SCAR) can increase industrial application of the molecular techniques. These markers have been used for authentication of medicinal plant species of ginseng, 11) Artemisia 12) and other commercially important timbers like bamboo. 13)In the present study, we have chosen six Phyllanthus species (other than P. emblica) that are commercially and therapeutically important; and are widely used in Ayurvedic system of medicine for treating various ailments.14) SCAR marker for correct genotype identification of P. emblica from a species-specific RAPD amplicon is developed by comparative analysis. The marker is further used for authentication of commercial samples of P. emblica fruit powders (Amlachurna) as well as Triphalachurna, a multi-component formulation which contains fruit powders of P. emblica, Terminalia chebula ROTZ. and Terminalia belerica ROXB. MATERIALS AND METHODS Plant MaterialFresh leaf tissues of Phyllanthus distichus LINN., Phyllanthus reticulatus POIR., Phyllanthus urinaria LINN., Phyllanthus simplex RETZ., Phyllanthus niruri LINN. and Phyllanthus indofischeri BENNET. were collected from different parts of India (three samples of each species) and authenticated in Agharkar research Institute, Pune, India. Leaf tissues of eleven cultivars of P. emblica viz.; NA-06, NA-07, NA-10, Kanchan, Chakaiya, Francis, Banarasi, Hathizool, Dongri, Bansired and Anand-01 were collected from standard cultivated plots of Mahatma Phule Agricultural University, Rahuri, India. The collected fresh tissues were powdered in liquid nitrogen and stored in deep freezer (Ϫ70°C) till further processing.Three commercial P. emblica fruit powder sample...

The present work deals with encapsulation of fragrance molecule in inorganic nanocontainers substrate and investigation of its prolonged release at different pH condition. The nanocontainers used were aluminosilicate clay (Halloysite) having cylindrical shape with outside diameter in the range of 30-50 nm, 15 nm lumen and length equal to 800 ± 300 nm. Rosewater absolute was used as a sample fragrance for loading in nanocontainer and delivery purpose. The fragrance loaded nanocontainers were coated with a thin layer of polyelectrolyte i.e. Polyacrylic Acid (PAA). The structural characteristics of prepared nanocontainers were determined by using Fourier Transform Intrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and UV spectroscopy analysis. Release of fragrance molecules in the aqueous medium was monitored for 24 h. The fragrance release was found to be responsive as the amount of fragrance release increases with increase in pH value from 3 to 7. Fragrance release has been studied by using various permeation kinetic models such as zero order, first order, Hixson-Crowell, Higuchi, Korsmeyer-Peppas and Hopfenberg models. Korsemyer-Peppas shows the best fit (R 2 = 0.9544) compared to other kinetic model for the release of fragrance from nanocontainers.

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Recent reports on COVID-19 suggest, the susceptibility to COVID-19 and its progression have a genetic predisposition. Majorly associated genetic variants are found in human leukocyte antigen ( HLA) , angiotensin convertase enzyme ( ACE ; rs1799752: ACE2; rs73635825 ) , transmembrane protease serine 2 ( TMPRSS-2 ; rs12329760 ) genes. Identifying highly prone population having these variants is imperative for determining COVID-19 therapeutic strategy. Ayurveda (Indian traditional system of medicine) concept of Prakriti holds potential to predict genomic and phenotypic variations. Reported work on Prakriti correlates HLA-DR alleles with three broad phenotypes ( Tridosha ) described in Ayurveda (AyuGenomics). This is suggestive of differences in immune responses in individuals with specific constitutions. Therefore, the reported studies provide clues for clinically relevant hypotheses to be tested in systematic studies. The proposed approach of Ayurveda based phenotype screening may offer a way ahead to design customized strategies for management of COVID-19 based on differences in Prakriti , immune response and drug response. However, this needs clinical evaluation of the relation between Prakriti and genetic or phenotypic variants in COVID-19 prone and resistant populations.