Abstract

                                Hemidesmus indicus is a commercially important medicinal crop thatcatches the attention of both pharmaceuticals as well as the food andflavoring industry. The current investigation intends to reveal the possibilitiesassociated with the morphologically distinct H. indicus plants. The GC-MSanalysis carried out with broad-leafed H. indicus root extracts resulted in theidentification of 40 various compounds. Among all the compounds 2-hydroxy-4-methoxy benzaldehyde (MBALD) was found to be the major chemical entity.Further, RP-HPLC analysis was carried out to decipher the amount of MBALDpresent in roots of two morphologically distinct H. indicus plants were foundto be 0.1827 and 0.1537 mg/gram of tissue of slender and long leafed andbroad-leafed plants, respectively.

Key words : Hemidesmus indicus; GC-MS; RP-HPLC; MBALD