Calendula officinalis Linn. (Asteraceae) is used medicinally in Europe, China and India amongst several places in the world. It is also known as "African marigold" and has been a subject of several chemical and pharmacological studies. It is used in traditional medicine, especially for wound healing, jaundice, blood purification, and as an antispasmodic. Chemical studies have underlined the presence of various classes of compounds, the main being triterpenoids, flavonoids, coumarines, quinones, volatile oil, carotenoids and amino acids. The extract of this plant as well as pure compounds isolated from it, have been demonstrated to possess multiple pharmacological activities such as anti-HIV, cytotoxic, antiinflammatory, hepatoprotective, spasmolytic and spasmogenic, amongst others. In this review, we have explored the phytochemistry and pharmacological activities of C. officinalis in order to collate existing information on this plant as well as highlight its multi-activity properties as a medicinal agent. This is as a result of the worldwide cultivation of the plant and increasing published reports on it.

Oleanolic acid is an interesting molecule found widespread throughout the plant kingdom with promising pharmacological activities. However, the utilization of oleanolic acid in the modern therapy is quite difficult due to the lack of proper isolation method and selection of commercially available raw materials. In the present study, the new economically viable method for the isolation of oleanolic acid from flower buds of Eugenia caryophyllus (Spreng.), commonly known as clove bud, was developed. The yield of oleanolic acid was found to be 1.8 g/ 100 g dry matter (1.8%). The isolated oleanolic acid was characterized by DSC, TLC, FTIR, ESI-HRMS, and NMR studies. The purity of isolated oleanolic acid was determined by HPLC studies, and it was found to be 97.7% pure. The method so developed is simple and cost-effective with industrial applicability.

Oleanolic acid is reported to have various pharmacological activities of therapeutic interest. In order to use it in modern therapy, it is necessary to understand about its drug designing parameters. The current study deals with the determination of partition coefficient (log p) of oleanolic acid by UV-spectrophotometer and its comparison with the values predicted by the online software. For the determination of partition coefficient of oleanolic acid, the shake-flask method was used in which the drug is allowed to partition between n-octanol and distilled water. Further, the amount of drug solubilized in the n-octanol was determined using a UV-spectrophotometer. The partition coefficient of oleanolic acid obtained by said method was 5.32, while, the online software predicted its log p values ranging from 3.94 -7.49. The log p value of oleanolic acid obtained by experiment and predicted by the online software concluded that the said molecule is lipophilic in nature.

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