Pulok K Mukherjee

• M. Pharm, PhD, FRSC
• Managing Director at Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development

Isosecotanapartholide (ISTP) isolated from Artemisia vulgaris, having fumigant property, was tested for acute and sub-acute toxicity in BALB/c mice. The male and female BALB/c mice were given ISTP orally for 7 days at doses of 200, 800 and 1600 mg/kg body weight (bw) for the acute toxicity assay. For sub-acute toxicity test, ISTP was given orally f...

Background: Bamboo has been used in traditional Asian medicine since ancient times. Silica is formed in the shoot internodes of various bamboo species. This bamboo-derived silica, referred to as bamboo biosilica or “banslochan” (in Sanskrit), possesses multiple health benefits. In Ayurveda, this has been described to have immunomodulatory propertie...

The present investigation has been attempted for scientifically validating the traditional uses of Piper mullesua against inflammatory pathophysiology using both in vivo (albino rats) and in vitro (macrophage cells, RAW 264.7) models of inflammation caused by an endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide, LPS). Oral gavaging with PMHAE, hydroalcoholic extract o...

Introduction The Zingiberaceae family is well known for its therapeutic characteristics, notably its antidiabetic and antioxidant potential, which may be linked to its diverse bioactive metabolite composition. Despite widespread usage in traditional medicine, there has been little research on the chemical composition and biological activity of Zing...

Natural resources have been used for food and medicine since the beginning of human civilization, and they have always been a low-cost, easily accessible source for individuals. Northeast region of India (NER) represents a significant portion of India’s flora and fauna. Marginality, fragility, inaccessibility, ethnicity, and cultural diversity thri...

Introduction Black rice ( Oryza sativa L.) has gained prominence as a functional food because of its rich content of anthocyanins and polyphenols, offering potential health benefits. However, comprehensive research addressing the diverse anthocyanin compositions in black rice cultivars remains limited. Objective This study aimed to quantify anthoc...

Alzheimer’s disease is a complex neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive decline in cognitive function and behaviour. Ginger is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale Roscoe, has been an important ingredient of many Ayurveda formulations to treat neurological disorders. The present study aims to estimate the variation of 6-ging...

Capsaicin is the primary bioactive constituent in chillies, responsible for its incomparable pungent taste and many health advantages. In the current study, 32 samples of three different species of Capsicum (Capsicum annuum L., Capsicum frutescens L., Capsicum chinense Jacq.) from various geographical regions in Northeast India were evaluated for t...

Introduction Benincasa hispida (Thunb.) Cogn. (Cucurbitaceae) is an essential food plant in India possessing antihyperglycemic and antihyperlipidemic activities. Objective The objective included comparative estimation of α-glucosidase and α-amylase enzyme inhibition potential of B. hispida fractions prepared by microwave-assisted extraction and pr...

Gynura cusimbua (D. Don) S. Moore is a medicinal plant traditionally used to accelerate wound healing. Scientifically, it has been reported to exhibit anti-inflammatory, anti-ulcer, hypoglycemic and anti-angiogenic activities. However, no report on wound healing activity of this plant has been studied scientifically so far. Thus, our study presents...

The wild edible mushroom, Termitomyces has been employed in traditional medicine by various indigenous communities throughout Asia and Africa. In India, the Santal tribe used it to treat pox while the Mokokchung people used it for abdominal discomfort, cough and whooping cough. However, to date, the antiviral activity of Termitomyces has not been e...

In this study the synergistic antihyperglycemic effect of the medicinal plant Ceriops decendra stem hydro-alcoholic extract (CD) and protein component isolated from Cyamopsis tetragonoloba seed (CT) was evaluated in vitro in α-glucosidase and α-amylase inhibitory bio-assays and in vivo against streptozotocin (STZ)-nicotinamide-induced diabetic rats...

The current work investigates the chemodiversity, in vitro antioxidant, α‐amylase and α‐glucosidase inhibitory potential of Cinnamomum tamala (CT) leaf essential oil (EO) collected from different localities of East Khasi Hills District of Meghalaya, India. Gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry (GC‐MS) analysis of all the extracted leaf essential oil...

Genus Swertia under the family Gentianaceae is morphologically and taxonomically distinct with about 14 species from Sikkim Himalayan region. A Chrono-spatial floral phenology study was conducted on Swertia bimaculata from 1580 to 2400 m altitude in West Sikkim Himalayan region. The floral phenology was studied in a field nursery at 1200 m altitude...

Introduction The Cucurbitaceae family comprises many agronomically important members, that bear nutritious fruits and vegetables of great economic importance. Coccinia grandis, commonly known as Ivy gourd, belongs to this family and is widely consumed as a vegetable. Members of this family are known to display an impressive range of variation in fr...

Introduction Ginger ( Zingiber officinale Rosc.) varies widely due to varying concentrations of phytochemicals and geographical origin. Rapid non‐invasive quality and traceability assessment techniques ensure a sustainable value chain. Objective The objective of this study is the development of suitable machine learning models to estimate the conc...

The production of biopharmaceuticals using genetically modified organisms represents a transformative paradigm in the pharmaceutical industry. This abstract explores the advancements, challenges, and implications of employing genetically modified organisms for the synthesis of biopharmaceuticals. The genetic modification of organisms, ranging from...

Ethnopharmacological relevance: Momordica dioica Roxb. ex Willd. (M. dioica Roxb.) a nutritious and therapeutic property rich crop of Cucurbitaceae plant family. In various folklore medicine including Ayurveda fruits are used to treat several metabolic related disorders i.e., hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, obesity etc. Furthermore, tradit...

Fermented foods have been recognized as a source of probiotic bacteria which can have a positive effect when administered to humans and animals. Discovering new probiotics in fermented food products poses a global economic and health importance. In this study, we investigated the antimicrobial and probiotic potential of lactobacilli isolated from f...

Introduction The Bruguiera cylindrica L. is a mangrove plant that is typically found in coastal areas of Asia, including India. It has been known for its medicinal properties, which have been utilized for generations. For example, in Thailand, it has been used to treat wounds and diarrhoea, while in India, it has been effective in addressing diabet...

Lactiplantibacillus plantarum BRD3A was isolated from Atingba, a traditional fermented rice-based beverage of Manipur. Its genomic sequence has 13 contigs and its genome size is 3,320,817 bp with a guanine–cytosine (GC) ratio of 44.6%. It comprises 3185 genes including 3112 coding sequences (CDSs), 73 RNAs (including 66 tRNAs and others), and one c...

Edible insects possess several health enhancing properties and play an important role in human nutrition. Coridius chinensis is an edible insect that is considered food and claimed as traditional medicine. In the present study, nutritional contents, chemical composition, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties of C. chinensis were analyzed. I...

Insects are the largest group of arthropods with the highest faunal diversity of over a million species. Apart from many other roles in the environment, the aspect of several insects being used for human consumption (entomophagy) and as traditional medicine (entomotherapy) by different communities of the world holds special significance for counter...

Cucurbitacin E (CuE) is a potent bioactive compound derived from the family of cucurbitaceae. CuE has recently been demonstrated to have outstanding potential to inhibit the growth of different kinds of cancer cells. CuE has been proven to have a strong anticancer effect on lung cancer in different in vitro and in vivo studies up to this date. In t...

Little millet ( Panicum sumatrense ) belongs to one of the largest genera, Panicum comprising of 500 species that are distributed especially in tropical and sub-tropical Asia as well as Africa. This is a climate resilient crop that has the ability to adapt to adverse growing conditions, especially drought. Added to this is the better nutritional pr...

Valeriana jatamansi Jones. syn. V. wallichi (Family: Caprifoliaceae) is globally known and amongst the 27 listed medicinal plants under National AYUSH Mission (NAM) by National Medicinal Plants Board, New Delhi, Government of India. V. jatamansi is a temperate Himalayan critically vulnerable plant enlisted as plants of conservation concern under Co...

Background: The medicinal plants of the Cucurbitaceae family, such as Solena heterophylla Lour. fruits, have significant ethnobotanical value and are readily accessible in North East India. Aim: We conducted a study on Solena heterophylla Lour. fruits to evaluate their anti-diabetic activity in vivo, standardize their HPTLC, and profile their me...

In the current investigation, a simple, rapid and reproducible high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) method was established for the quantitative estimation of genistein in the hydroalcoholic extracts of Flemingia procumbens Roxb. tuber. HPTLC plates (20 cm × 10 cm) precoated with silica gel 60F254 as the stationary phase and a mobile p...

Houttuynia cordata (Thunb.), an important medicinal plant of Northeast India, Korea, and China, is used to treat various ailments and for anticancer research. Knowing its traditional practices, we are interested in the mode-of-action of HCT on HepG2 to co-relate the traditional practice with modern drug therapeutics. UPLC-Q-ToF-Ms analysis of HCT r...

As the global population and living standards rise, it pushes the demand for basic amenities like food, health, and energy resources. Additionally, manufacturing automation has led to mass production and consumption, triggering waste production. The existing linear economy approach has led to increasing waste production and resource depletion, posi...

The roots of Potentilla fulgengs have been utilized for a long time as an astringent and tonic for treating gum and tooth diseases, microbial contagions, inflammation, diabetes mellitus, and wounds and are rich in polyphenols and flavonoids. Authentication and constant excellence are the rudimentary limitations of herbal medicines and their complex...

Introduction: Black rice (Oryza sativa L.), which is rich in polyphenols and flavonoids, is indigenous to Northeast India, specifically Manipur, and traditionally consumed for its protective effects on human health. Due to its economic value, it is crucial to evaluate the quality of different black rice varieties to authenticate their therapeutic...

Potentilla fulgens is known as Himalayan Cinquefoil and Lyngniangbru, rich in polyphenolic constituents and used as folk medicine by inhabitants of northeast India. This study intended to develop and validate a high‐performance thin‐layer chromatography method for the quantification of catechin in the Potentilla fulgens roots extract and explore it...

Type 2 diabetes has become one of the major health concerns of the 21st century, marked by hyperglycemia or glycosuria, and is associated with the development of several secondary health complications. Due to the fact that chemically synthesized drugs lead to several inevitable side effects, new antidiabetic medications from plants have gained subs...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2022.1011216.].

Paris polyphylla Sm. (Melanthiaceae) is an essential, vulnerable herb with a wide range of traditional applications ranging from fever to cancer in various communities. The use of P. polyphylla in India is limited to traditional healers. Here, we demonstrated that P. polyphylla extract (PPE) has good phenol, flavonoid, saponin, and steroidal saponi...

Terminalia chebula Retz. (Fam. Combretaceae), locally called Manahei, is a well-known medicinal plant that grows wildly in Manipur, a Northeastern state of India. It is used as a mild laxative, an anti-inflammatory agent, and a remedy for piles, colds, and ulcers by ethnic communities of the state. The hydroalcoholic extract obtained from four frui...

Trachyspermum ammi (L.) Sprague (Apiaceae), commonly known as 'Ajwain' is distributed throughout India. Ajwain fruits contain fibre, carbohydrates, phenolic acids, flavonoids and tannins. The fruits also yield a small amount of essential oil, with Thymol as the principal constituent. Ajwain has various pharmacological activities like anti-leishmani...

The objective of this study was to discriminate the samples with different piperine content using near-infrared reflectance (NIR) spectroscopy. Twenty black pepper samples were collected from different parts of West Bengal, India. Clustering analysis was carried out using principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) on...

The aim of this work was to compare principal component regression (PCR) and partial least squares (PLS) regression methods while estimating the piperine content in black pepper using Raman spectroscopy. The calibration and prediction models of the regression analysis on Raman spectra were developed using PCR and PLS algorithm. The efficiency of th...

The Northeast region of India harbours rich resources of bamboo species that are distributed in tropical, subtropical and temperate regions as pure stands or mixed-bamboo forests. In spite of enormous economic importance, bamboo remains to be a poorly underexplored plant group. This chapter describes the diverse distribution, resource stock and uti...

Insects are the largest group of organisms of faunal biodiversity. Among those, several are recognize for human consumptions by different communities of the world. Besides human consumption these insects are traditionally use as medicine and for therapeutic purpose. There are numerous insects which are utilized as a therapeutic component by the loc...

Artemisia vulgaris is an enormously useful aromatic plant known for its insecticidal, antifungal, parasiticidal, and medicinal values. The main aim of this study is to investigate phytochemical contents and the potential antimicrobial activities of Artemisia vulgaris essential oil (AVEO) from the fresh leaves of A. vulgaris grown in Manipur. The AV...

Andrographis paniculata (family Acanthaceae) is known as Kalmegh, one of the traditionally used important medicinal plant contains several biologically active phytochemical including andrographolide. A. paniculata is broadly used by healthcare practitioners in India and also used in different traditional medicinal system. In this study, the leaves...

A simple, reliable, and reproducible high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) method was developed for the quantitative determination of chlorogenic acid in the hydroalcoholic extract of Gynura cusimbua (D. Don) S. Moore leaves (HAGC). HPTLC plates (10 cm × 10 cm) pre-coated with silica gel 60F254 as the stationary phase and a mobile phas...

Mollugo oppositifolia Linn. is traditionally used in neurological complications. The study aimed to investigate in-vitro neuroprotective effect of the plant extracts through testing against acetylcholinesterase (AChE), butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), and β-secretase linked to Alzheimer’s disease (AD). To understand the safety aspects, the extracts we...

A thermophilic cellulase-producing bacterium, Bacillus velezensis strain MRC 5958, from Bakra natural hot Springs, India was characterized through genome sequencing. It has a genome size of 4,467,129 bp and a GC content of 45.7%. A cellulase purified from its fermentation broth has a molecular weight of about 18 kDa. The optimum temperature and pH...

Introduction: Ginger constitutes the rhizome part of the plant Zingiber officinale from the Zingiberaceae family. A large number of ginger varieties with high sensorial and functional quality are found in Northeast India. Hence, phytopharmacological screening of different ginger varieties is essential that will serve as a guideline in applied rese...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) along with asthma is a major and increasing global health problem. Smoking contributes to about 80%–90% of total COPD cases in the world. COPD leads to the narrowing of small airways and destruction of lung tissue leading to emphysema primarily caused by neutrophil elastase. Neutrophil elastase plays an...

Insects are important bioresources as they supply numerous tangible and intangible benefits to humans. Day-to-day livings of many communities in the world are associated with insects as food, medicine, social beliefs, livelihood and other aspects. Many communities from immemorial time traditionally practice insects as food (entomophagy). People con...

Background : Breast adenocarcinoma is one of the leading causes of death among women regardless of development in the field of diagnosis, treatment and prevention. Synergistic approaches are emerging as a strategy to overcome monotherapy resistance in cancer treatment. Purpose : Evaluation of the combinatory activity of β-carotene (BC) and lupeol...

Antimicrobial resistance has been developing fast and incurring a loss of human life, and there is a need for new antimicrobial agents. Naturally occurring antimicrobial peptides offer the characteristics to counter AMR because the resistance development is low or no resistance. Antimicrobial peptides from Paenibacillus peoriae IBSD35 cell-free sup...

This study aimed to profile the metabolites, piperine content, and biological activities (antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antibacterial, and apoptotic cell) of 15 samples of Piper nigrum L. from various geographic regions of Thailand. UHPLC-QTOF-MS was applied to establish alkaloid profiles of the P. nigrum L. samples. PCA and HCA analy...

The different varieties of melons (Cucumis melo L.) have been used in various traditional systems of medicine for decades to treat different ailments, including inflammation, cancer, cardiovascular, diabetes, edema, etc. The present study was designed for the quantification of cucurbitacin E in five different varieties of melon fruit through a vali...

134 bacterial strains were isolated from phumdis of Loktak Lake. Through 16S rRNA sequencing, Bacillus sp. (23, 17.1%), Staphylococcus sp. (14, 10.4%), Pseudomonas sp. (11, 8.2%) and Acinetobacter sp. (8, 5.9%) were identified as the predominant bacterial taxa of Loktak Lake. B. pumulis (12, 8.9%), S. arlettae (4, 2.9%), P. knackmussii (6, 4.4%) ar...

Quality assessment of medicinal, aromatic plants and plant parts, and spices are to large extent based on estimation of active molecules. Such estimations require high cost, time consuming and laboratory bound methods like High Performance Liquid Chromatography. These methods can handle very few samples at a time and have no portability. Raman spec...

Phycocyanin is a water-soluble blue pigment biliprotein that has been utilized as a nutritional supplement for its potent antioxidant and anti-inflammation activity. In this study, three cyanobacterial species from the North-Eastern India, Calothrix sp. (BTA-476), Calothrix sp. (BTA-857), and Westiellopsis sp. (BTA-801) are taxonomically and molecu...

The mushroom is an important food for the rural tribal populations in Manipur, because of its high nutritional contents. In this study, we report on the nutritional profile of three wild edible mushrooms consumed by the tribal populations of Manipur viz.: Macrocybe gigantea J124; Lactifluus leptomerus J201 and Ramaria thindii J470. The studied mush...

Neutrophil elastase, a powerful physiological defence tool, may serve as drug target for diverse diseases due to its bystander effect on host cells like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Here, we synthesised seven novel benzoxazinone derivatives and identified that these synthetic compounds are human neutrophil elastase inhibitor that w...

Ethnopharmacological relevance Lagenaria siceraria Stand. (Family: Cucurbitaceae), popularly known as bottle gourd, is traditionally used in Ayurvedic medicine as a food plant, especially in hypertension and obesity. Aim of the study Investigations were undertaken to assign novel lead combinations from this common food plant to multi-molecular mod...

Background: This study comparatively assessed seven indigenous traditional tea plants on several attributes that included antioxidant, nutritional, caffeine contents, and cyclooxygenase activity. Methodology: Nutritional content of all tea plants were determined for energy, fat, carbohydrates, total sugars, dietary fiber and amino acids. Antioxidan...

The enriched fraction derived from Dillenia indica L. (Dilleniaceae), also known as elephant apple was subjected to acute and sub-acute toxicological study to document its safety issues for use as fumigant. The enriched fractions were orally administered to both sexes of BALB/c mice at doses of 200, 800 and 1600 mg/kg bw for acute toxicity, and 50...

Parkia roxburghii pod is a very popular food in North East India, known as Yongchak. Traditionally, it is used for the treatment of blood pressure, piles, diabetes, dysentery and urinary tract infections. The seeds contain many phytochemicals like flavonoids, alkaloids, saponins, terpenoids and tannins which are responsible for their medicinal prop...

Consumption of insects as food has a long history and has been documented by many researches. Globally, it is extensively practiced in Africa, Asia, Australia, and Latin America as traditional food providing nutritional, economic and ecological benefit for rural communities. In today’s world, edible insects are limelight by many researchers and ind...

A South African traditional formulation, PHELA®, is consumed by the traditional people for severe chest problems with coughing, diarrhea, oral ulcers etc. The present study focused on establishing the anti-infective properties of a safe and standardized poly-herbal formulation through a series of criteria and specifications.

Piperine is the most important alkaloid molecule present in Piper nigrum. In this study, a simple, rapid, quantitative high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) technique proposed by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) was optimized and validated for the quantitative estimation of piperine in P. nigrum. Densitometric analy...

A rapid validated UFLC-PDA method was developed to identify and quantify ayapanin (AY) and umbelliferone (UM) simultaneously in Ayapana triplinervis (Vahl) methanolic extract (ATME). The method was validated for linearity, limit of detection (LOD=3:1σ/S), limit of quantification (LOQ=10:1σ/S), precision, accuracy, specificity and robustness. The re...

Background : The worldwide corona virus disease outbreak, generally known as COVID-19 pandemic outbreak resulted in a major health crisis globally. The morbidity and transmission modality of COVID-19 appear more severe and uncontrollable. The respiratory failure and following cardiovascular complications are the main pathophysiology of this deadly...