DECALEPIS HAMILTONII EXTRACT

Chemical properties

Decalepis hamiltonii Wight & Arn. is the sole species of plant in the genus Decalepis. It is grown in India. The English name of swallowroot is sometimes used for the plant and studies have shown that it has insecticidal activity and a potential use in control of stored grain pests. The active ingredient in the root was synthesized and encapsulated with beta-cyclodextrins. The roots were also subjected to supercritical carbon dioxide–based extraction at the Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore, India. The root contains antioxidants and extraction methods for it have been patented.

Anticancer Research

D. hamiltonii is one of the most important endangered woody medicinal climbingmembers of Asclepiadaceae family (Sharma and Shahzad (2014)). It is distributedin the Eastern and Western Ghats of peninsular India. It has been extensively usedin the folk medicines for a wide range of ailments like stomach disorders and gastriculcers and to stimulate appetite (Sharma and Shahzad 2014). Its tuber is used in afood and health drinks (Vedavathy 2004) and reported with antimicrobial, antipyretic,antiulcer, antidiabetic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, chemoprotective,cytoprotective, insecticidal, neuroprotective, and hepatoprotective activities (Reddyand Murthy 2013). D. hamiltonii root extract has been shown to have antitumoreffect (Srivastava et al. 2007). In another study, treatment of D. hamiltonii wasshown to inhibit the progression of metastasis lung cancer (Shathish andGuruvayoorappan 2014). The administration of the plant extract altered pro-inflammatorycytokine secretion and repressed the nuclear translocation of p50 andp65 subunits of NF (nuclear factor) κB in cancer cells (B16F-10).