RESUMEN
Background: Ayurveda, the indigenous medical system of India, has chemosensory property (rasa) as one of its major pharmacological metric. Medicinal plants have been classified in Ayurveda under six rasas/tastes-sweet, sour, saline, pungent, bitter and astringent. This study has explored for the first time, the use of Electronic tongue for studies of rasa-based classification of medicinal plants. Methods: Seventy-eight medicinal plants, belonging to five taste categories (sweet, sour, pungent, bitter, astringent) were studied along with the reference taste standards (citric acid, hydrochloric acid, caffeine, quinine, L-alanine, glycine, ß-glucose, sucrose, D-galactose, cellobiose, arabinose, maltose, mannose, lactose, xylose). The studies were carried out with the potentiometry-based Electronic tongue and the data was analysed using Principle Component Analysis, Discriminant Function Analysis, Taste Discrimination Analysis and Soft Independent Modeling of Class Analogy. Results: Chemosensory similarities were observed between taste standards and the plant samples-citric acid with sour group plants, sweet category plants with sucrose, glycine, ß-glucose and D-galactose. The multivariate analyses could discriminate the sweet and sour, sweet and bitter, sweet and pungent, sour and pungent plant groups. Chemosensory category of plant (classified as unknown) could also be identified. Conclusion: This preliminary study has indicated the possibility of fingerprinting the chemosensory-based ayurvedic classification of medicinal plants using E-tongue coupled with multivariate statistical analysis.
RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Information from Ayurveda meeting the analytical challenges of modern technology is an area of immense relevance. Apart from the cerebral task of bringing together two different viewpoints, the question at the pragmatic level remains 'who benefits whom'. OBJECTIVE: The aim is to highlight the challenges in integration of information (Ayurvedic) and technology using test examples of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) metabolomics and anti-HIV-1 potential of select Ayurvedic medicinal plants. The other value added objective is implications and relevance of such work for Ayurveda. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Six medicinal plants (Azadirachta indica, Tinospora cordifolia, Swertia chirata, Terminalia bellerica, Zingiber officinale and Symplocos racemosa) were studied using high resolution proton NMR spectroscopy based metabolomics and also evaluated for anti-HIV-1 activity on three pseudoviruses (ZM53 M.PB12, ZM109F.PB4, RHPA 4259.7). RESULTS: Of the six plants, T. bellerica and Z. officinale showed minimum cell cytotoxicity and maximum anti-HIV-1 potential. T. bellerica was effective against all the three HIV-1 pseudoviruses. Untargeted NMR profiling and multivariate analyses demonstrated that the six plants, all of which had different Ayurvedic pharmacological properties, showed maximum differences in the aromatic region of the spectra. CONCLUSION: The work adds onto the list of potential plants for anti-HIV-1 drug molecules. At the same time, it has drawn attention to the different perspectives of Ayurveda and Western medicine underscoring the inherent limitations of conceptual bilinguism between the two systems, especially in the context of medicinal plants. The study has also highlighted the potential of NMR metabolomics in study of plant extracts as used in Ayurveda.
RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: The use of medicinal plants in Ayurveda is based on rasa, generally taken to represent taste as a sensory perception. This chemosensory parameter plays an important role in Ayurvedic pharmacology. OBJECTIVE: The aim is to explore the use of structuro-functional information deduced from analytical techniques for the rasa-based classification of medicinal plants in Ayurveda. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Methods of differential sensing and spectroscopic metabolomics have been used in select medicinal plants from three different taste categories (sweet, pungent and multiple taste): Tribulus terrestris, Vitis vinifera and Glycyrrhiza glabra from sweet category; Piper longum, Cuminum cyminum and Capsicum annum from pungent group; Emblica officinalis with five tastes. While Electronic tongue was used for evaluation of the sensorial property of taste, the chemical properties were studied with Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Fourier Transform InfraRed (FTIR) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS). RESULTS: In terms of taste and phytochemical profiles, all samples were unique but with similarities within each group. While the sensor response in E-tongue showed similarities within the sweet and pungent categories, NMR spectra in the aromatic region showed close similarities between the plants in the sweet category. The sensory, phytochemical and phytoelemental profiles of E. officinalis (with five rasa) in particular, were unique. CONCLUSION: A combination of sensorial and chemical descriptors is a promising approach for a comprehensive evaluation and fingerprinting of the Ayurvedic pharmacological parameter rasa.