Chemical Investigation on Astavarga Plants and Self-assembly Study of Stigmasterol and Crotocembraneic acid

Abstract

Chapter I: General Introduction PART-A: Asthavarga plants and terpenoids and sterol based natural product ‘Ashtvarga’ a group of eight medicinal plants(‘Asht’ means eight and ‘Varga’ means group), namely, Vriddhi, Ridhi, Meda , Mahameda, Jeevak, Rishvak, Kshirakakoli and Kakoli , distributed in North West Himalayan region in small patches with an altitudinal range of 1600–4000 m from the sea level. Terpenoids and sterols are extractable from plants, and terpenoids with one or more hydroxyl and/or carboxyl groups the terpenoids opened up a new era for the study of their self-assembly properties in different liquids. PART-B: Self-Assembly and supramolecular Gel Molecular self-assembly is the assembly of molecules in to an organized structure with the aid of multiple intermolecular forces including relatively weak non-covalent interactions, such as hydrogen bonding, - stacking, electrostatic, van-der Waals, co-ordination and ion-dipole interactions. Chapter II. Chemical investigation on “Astavarga” plants and their antioxidant property Stigmasterol and Erucic acid are two compounds isolated from leaves Roscoea purpurea(kakoli) and pseudobulb of Crepidium acuminatum(Jeevak) plant respectively. These two plants are the most important plant of “Astavarga” group. Astavarga plants are found in Himalayan area of India. Chapter III. Self-assembly study of Stigmasterol in organic liquids Stigmasterol, a naturally occurring 6-6-6-5 monohydroxy phytosterol, was extracted from the leaves of Indian medicinal plant Roscoea purpurea, commonly known as Kakoli. The molecule self-assembled in organic liquids yielding supramolecular gels in most of the liquids studied via the formation of fibers and belt-like architectures of nano-to micrometer diameter.

Chapter IV. First Vesicular Self-Assembly of Crotocembraneic Acid, a Nano-Sized Fourteen Membered Macrocyclic Diterpenic Acid Crotocembraneic acid was extracted from the leaves of Croton oblongifolius Roxb. The carboxyl group forming a polar head group and the macrocycle forming a highly hydrophobic tail, crotocembraneic acid turned out to be a unique macrocyclic amphiphile for the study of its self-assembly properties in various