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BSI Symposium 2025

Central Botanical Laboratory, Howrah

Plant Chemistry

Plant Chemistry

Plant Chemistry

PLANT CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT

Plant Chemistry Laboratory was established at Lucknow in April 1954 based on the recommendation of Dr. E.K. Janaki Ammal for studying the Plant Chemotaxonomy and in the same year the laboratory was shifted at 76, lower circular road, Kolkata under direct control of headquarter

The laboratory moved to CNH Building, Howrah in the year 1965 and later on shifted to Indian Museum Building, Kolkata in 1979

Since 1996 this laboratory is functioning in the 4th floor of Central National Herbarium Building, Howrah under direct control of headquarter, BSI, Kolkata

MAJOR ACHIEVEMENT OF THE PLANT CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT

1. A high percentage (6.4%) of Solasodine was obtained from the fruits of Solanum viarum Dunal. This work was carried out in detail with United States Aid, PL 480 Project (public Law 480" “Agricultural Trade Development Assistence Act").

2. Kopsine, a novel Indole alkaloid was isolated from the leaves of Kopsia fruticosa the relative configurations at various centres has been achieved by X-ray crystallographic studies.

3. Tiliarine , an indole alkaloid isolated from Tiliacora racemosa and it was found to be toxic for malignant melanoma cell lines (G361) but did not affect normal fibroblasts (CRL 1656).

4. Multidimensional structure of Tiliacorine, isolated from Tiliacora racemosa was established by 2D NMR spectrum

5. Nutraceutical potential of 140 wild edible plants of North-eastern region in India has been carried out from following aspect

i) Estimation of ash, moisture, crude protein, carbohydrate, fat, fibre and energy content in the plant material

ii) Estimation of percent concentration of various elements like Na, K, Ca, Cr, Mg, Cu, Zn, Mn and Fe in the plant material

iii) Estimation of heavy metals ( Hg, Cr, Pb &As) in the plant material

iv) Antinutritional properties (Oxalate, Phytate, Tannin, Saponin, Cyanogenic glycoside) of wild edible plants

v) Vitamin content of wild edible plants by HPLC

vi) In vitro Antioxidant properties of wild edible plants (enzymatic and non-enzymatic anti-oxidants assay)

vii) Quantification of phenolics and polyphenolics in wild edible plants by HPLC

viii) In vitro Toxicity studies (Hemolytic, cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of wild edible plants)

ix) DNA protective activities of wild edible plants

EXECUTING OFFICIALS :

1. Dr. Tapan Seal, Scientist D

2. Mr. Kausik Chaudhuri, Plant Chemist

3. Ms Basundhara Pillai, Botanist

4. Mr Mahadev Ghosh, MTS

PUBLICATIONS SINCE 2010

1. Tapan Seal, Nutritional Composition, Mineral contents and Antioxidant activity of Some Wild Edible Plants from Meghalaya state, India. Journal of Medicinal Food Plants 2(2), 6-13 (2010)

2. Tapan Seal, Determination of Nutritive value, Mineral contents and Antioxidant activity of Some Wild Edible Plants from Meghalaya state, India. Asian Journal of Applied Sciences. 4(3), 238-246 (2011)

3. Tapan Seal, Evaluation of Some Wild Edible Plants from Nutritional Aspect Used as Vegetable in Meghalaya State of India. World Applied Sciences Journal , 12 (8): 1282-1287, (2011)

4. Tapan Seal, Nutritional composition of wild edible fruits in Meghalaya State of India and their Ethno-botanical importance. Research Journal of Botany, 6(2), 58-67 (2011)

5. Tapan Seal. Antioxidant Activity of Some Wild Edible Fruits of Meghalaya State in India, Advances in Biological Research, 5(3) , 155-160 (2011)

6. Tapan Seal, Evaluation of Antioxidant Activity of Some Wild Edible Fruits of Meghalaya State in India, International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences , 3(4), 233-236, (2011).

7. Tapan Seal, Antioxidant activity of some wild edible plants of Meghalaya state of India, a comparison using two solvent extraction systems, International Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism 4 (3), 51-56, (2012)

8. Tapan Seal, Evaluation of nutritional potential of wild edible plants, traditionally used by the tribal people of Meghalaya State in India, American Journal of Plant Nutrition & Fertilization Technology 2 (1), 19-26, (2012)

9. Tapan Seal, Kaushik Chaudhuri and Basundhara Pillai. Antioxidant Activity of Some Selected Wild Edible Fruits of North-Eastern Region in India and Effect of Solvent Extraction System. Global Journal of Environmental Research 6 (3): 84-90, (2012)

10. Tapan Seal, Kaushik Chaudhuri and Basundhara Pillai. Effect of solvent extraction system on the antioxidant activity of some selected wild edible fruits of Meghalaya state in India. Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research, 5(1) :276-282 (2013)

11. Tapan Seal, Basundhara Pillai and Kaushik Chaudhuri. Effect of solvent extraction system on the antioxidant activity of some selected wild leafy vegetables of Meghalaya State in India. International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research. 4(3), 1046-1051 (2013)

12. D. Banerjee , A.K. Hazra , T. Seal , T. Sur , D. Bhattacharya , J. Ray , A. Mukherjee and B. Mukherjee. Antioxidant and Antiinflammatory Activities of Different Solvent Extracts and Isolated Compounds of Ipomoea pes-caprae (L) Sweet of Sunderban Mangrove Eco-complex. Asian Journal of Chemistry; 25(9), 4997-5000 (2013).

13. Sanjoy Gupta , Soneswar Sarma , A.A. Mao and Tapan Seal. Antioxidant activity of different parts of Lysimachia laxa and Gymnocladus assamicus, a comparison using three different solvent extraction systems. Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research, 5(4) : 33-40 (2013)

14. Tapan Seal, Kaushik Chaudhuri and Basundhara Pillai. Evaluation of Proximate and Mineral composition of wild edible leaves, traditionally used by the local people of Meghalaya state in India , Asian Journal of Plant Sciences, 12 (4), 171-175, (2013).

15. Sumit Manna , Tapas K. Sur , Tapan Seal , Anirban Roy. Evaluation of galactagogue and antioxidant activities of the root extract of Euphorbia fusiformis Asian Journal of Traditional Medicines 8(5) : 119-128 (2013)

16. Tapan Seal, Kaushik Chaudhuri and Basundhara Pillai. Nutritive value and mineral composition of some wild edible plants from Meghalaya State in India Advances in Biological Research , 8(3), 116-122, (2014)

17. Tapan Seal. Antioxidant activities of some wild vegetables of north-eastern region in India and effect of solvent extraction system, International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences 6 (5), 315-19 (2014)

18. Tapan Seal, Nilu Halder, Kausik Chaudhuri and Sankar Narayan Sinha . Effect of solvent extraction system on the antioxidant activities of algae. International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences 6 (10), 242-245, (2014)

19. Tapan Seal and Kausik Chaudhuri. Ethnobotanical importance and nutritional potential of wild edible fruits of Meghalaya state in India. Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research, 6 (10) : 680-684 (2014)

20. Tapan Seal , Basundhara Pillai and Kausik Chaudhuri. Nutritional potential of wild edible fruits, traditionally used by the local people of Meghalaya state in India. Indian Journal of Natural Product Resources , 5(4), 359-364, (2014)

21. Tapan Seal, Nilu Halder, Kausik Chaudhuri and Sankar Narayan Sinha . Evaluation of antioxidant activities of algae and effect of solvent extraction system. . International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research. 6(3), 1273-78 (2015)

22. Tapan Seal and Kausik Chaudhuri. Ethnobotanical importance and nutritional potential of wild leafy vegetables of Meghalaya state in India. International Journal of Applied Biology and Pharmaceutical Technology. 6 (1), 80-85 (2015)

23. Tapan Seal. Nutritional evaluation of some wild edible plants of Meghalaya State in India and their ethnobotanical importance. Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research, 7(3), 2296-2301 (2015).

24. Tapan Seal and Kaushik Chaudhuri. Effect of solvent extraction system on the antioxidant activity of some selected wild leafy vegetables of Meghalaya state in India. International Research Journal of Natural and Applied Sciences, 2(4), 69-83 (2015)

25. Tapan Seal and Kaushik Chaudhuri. Antioxidant activities of some wild edible plants of Meghalaya state in India and effect of solvent extraction system. International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences 7 (9), 446-450, (2015)

26. Tapan Seal and Kaushik Chaudhuri. Quantitative HPLC analysis of phenolic acids, flavonoids and ascorbic acid in four different solvent extracts of Bauhinia purpurea and Clerodendrum colebrookianum, wild edible plants of North-Eastern region in India. Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research, 7(11), 427-437 (2015).

27. Tapan Seal and Kaushik Chaudhuri. Antioxidant activities of five wild edible fruits of Meghalaya State in India and effect of solvent extraction system. International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research 6(12) : 5134-40 (2015)

28. Tapan Seal and Kaushik Chaudhuri. Antioxidant activities of some selected wild edible plants of Arunachal Pradesh State in India and effect of solvent extraction system. American Journal of Pharm Tech Research, 5(6), 506-17 (2015).

29. Tapan Seal and Kaushik Chaudhuri. Effect of solvent extraction system on the antioxidant activity of some selected wild leafy vegetables of Meghalaya state in India. International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Phytopharmacological Research , 5(3), 1-7 (2015).

30. Tapan Seal. Quantitative HPLC analysis of phenolic acids, flavonoids and ascorbic acid in four different solvent extracts of two wild edible leaves, Sonchus arvensis and Oenanthe linearis of North-Eastern region in India. Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Science, 6 (2) 157-166 ( 2016)

31. Tapan Seal. HPLC determination of phenolic acids, flavonoids and ascorbic acid in four different solvent extracts of Zanthoxylum acanthopodium, a wild edible plant of Meghalaya state of India. International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences 8 (3), 103-109, (2016)

32. Gargi Prasad , A.A. Mao , D. Vijayan , S. Mandal , K. Chaudhuri and T.Seal. Comparative HPLC Fingerprinting and Antioxidant Activities of in vitro and in vivo Grown Aerides odorata, A Medicinal Orchid. Journal of Chemical, Biological and Physical Sciences 6(2), 454-468 (2016)

33. Tapan Seal and Kaushik Chaudhuri. Effect of Solvent Extraction System on The Antioxidant Activities of Some Selected Wild Edible Plants Used By The Ethnic People of Arunachal Pradesh , International Journal of Current Pharmaceutical Review and Research; 7(3); 180-185 (2016)

34. A. Adhikari, A. K. Hazra, S. Bhattacharya, T. Seal, T. K. Sur. Dietary Polyphenolics Supplementation with Drinking Black Tea Ameliorates Gentamicin-Induced Nephrotoxicity in Mice. International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Drug Research 8(4): 204-209 (2016)

35. Tapan Seal, Basundhara Pillai and Kausik Chaudhuri Identification and Quantification of phenolic acids by HPLC, in two wild edible plants viz. Solanum gilo and Solanum kurzii collected from North-Eastern region in India. Journal of Chemical, Biological and Physical Sciences 6(4), 1108-1121 (2016)

36. Tapan Seal, Basundhara Pillai and Kausik Chaudhuri. Identification and Quantification of phenolic acids by HPLC, in three wild edible plants viz. Viburnum foetidum , Houttuynia cordata and Perilla ocimoides collected from North-Eastern region in India. International Journal of Current Pharmaceutical Review and Research 7(5) 267-74 (2016)

37. Tapan Seal and Kausik Chaudhuri. Identification and Quantification flavonoids in two wild edible plants, Viburnum foetidum and Perilla ocimoides of North-Eastern region in India, using High Performance Liquid Chromatography with Diode Array Detection. Journal of Medicinal Plants Studies, 4(5), 79-85, (2016)

38. Tapan Seal, Kausik Chaudhuri and Basundhara Pillai. Identification and Quantification flavonoids in three wild edible plants, Houttuynia cordata, Solanum gilo and Solanum kurzii of North-Eastern region in India, using High Performance Liquid Chromatography with Diode Array Detection. Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research, 8(8), 859-867 (2016).

39. Tapan Seal, Kausik Chaudhuri. Nutritional analysis of some selected wild edible plants consumed by the tribal people of Meghalaya state in India. International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition, 1(6), 39-43, (2016)

40. Tuhin K. Biswas, Saheli Banerjee, Nandini Poyra, Srikanta Pandit, Utpalendu Jana, Shrabana Chakrabarti and Tapan Seal. “In Search of Wound Healing Drugs: A Journey Through Ayurveda”. Chapter 3 of the book "Worldwide Wound Healing - Innovation in Natural and Conventional Methods", book edited by Cesar Joao Vicente da Fonseca, ISBN 978-953-51-2806-9, Print ISBN 978-953-51-2805-2, Published by Intech Open Science/ Open minds: December 7, 2016 under CC BY 3.0 license pp 48-59.

41. Tapan Seal, Basundhara Pillai and Kausik Chaudhuri. Evaluation of nutritional potential of five unexplored wild edible plants consumed by the tribal people of Arunachal Pradesh state in India. Journal of Food and Nutrition research, 5(1), 01-05, (2017).

42. Tuhin Kanti Biswas , Srikanta Pandit ,Shrabana Chakrabarti , Saheli Banerjee , Nandini Poyra , Tapan Seal. Evaluation of Cynodon dactylon for wound healing activity. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 197 (2), 128-137 (2017)

43. Anindita Banerjee, Bithin Maji, Sandip Mukherjee, Kausik Chaudhuri, Tapan Seal. In vitro anti-diabetic and anti-oxidant activities of ethanol extract of Tinospora sinensis. International Journal of Current Pharmaceutical Research, 9 (2), 42-47 (2017)

44. Tapan Seal, Basundhara Pillai, Kausik Chaudhuri. Nutritional potential of five unexplored wild edible plants consumed by the tribal people of Arunachal Pradesh state in India. International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition. 2 (2), 101-105 (2017)

45. Anindita Banerjee, Bithin Maji, Sandip Mukherjee, Kausik Chaudhuri, Tapan Seal. In vitro anti-diabetic and anti-oxidant activities of methanol extract of Tinospora sinensis. Journal of Applied Biology and Biotechnology , 5 (3), 61-67 (2017)

46. Sanjoy Gupta, Tapan Seal, A. A. Mao, Soneswar Sarma. High frequency direct shoot organogenesis of leaf explants and a comparative evaluation of phytochemicals, antioxidant potential of wild vs. in vitro plant extracts of Lysimachia laxa, 3 Biotech, 7 , 274-283 (2017)

47. Tapan Seal, Kausik Chaudhuri and Basundhara Pillai. Water Soluble Vitamin estimation in five Wild Edible fruits consumed by the tribal people of North-Eastern region in India by High Performance Liquid Chromatography. International Journal of Chemical Studies, 5(5), 1576-1584 (2017).

48. Tapan Seal and Kausik Chaudhuri High Performance Liquid Chromatography Method for the Estimation of Water Soluble Vitamin in Five Wild Edible Fruits Consumed by the Tribal People of North-Eastern Region in India. International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences, 6 (10), 2900-2913 (2017)

49. Tapan Seal, Kausik Chaudhuri and Basundhara Pillai. Nutraceutical and antioxidant properties of Cucumis hardwickii Royle: A potent wild edible fruit collected from Uttarakhand, India, Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 6(6): 1837-1847 (2017)

50. Alok K. Hazra , Tapas Kumar Sur , Banti Chakraborty and Tapan Seal. HPLC analysis of phenolic acids and antioxidant activity of some classical Ayurvedic guggulu formulations. Int. J. Res. Ayurveda Pharm. 9(1) : 112-117 (2018)

51. Sagari Chaudhury, Chowdhury Habibur Rahaman, Harish Singh, K. Chaudhuri,

B Pillai and Tapan Seal, Dioscorea alata: A potent wild edible plant consumed by the Lodha Tribal community of West Bengal, India. Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2018; 7(2): 654-663 (2018)

52. Tapan Seal. Wild edible plants of Arunachal Pradesh : Ethnomedicinal and nutritional Importance, Medicinal Plants - International Journal of Phytomedicines and Related Industries, 10(1), 1-9 (2018)

53. Sudeshna Datta, Bipin K.Sinha, Soumen Bhattacharjee and Tapan Seal, Management of invasive alien Species (IAS) of West Bengal via bioprospecting for a potential source of food supplement, International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition, 3(2), 89-94 (2018)

54. Sagari Chaudhury, Chowdhury Habibur Rahaman, Harish Singh, K Chaudhuri and Tapan Seal, Nutritional and medicinal importance of Dioscorea glabra R. Baron, a potent wild edible plant consumed by the Lodha tribal community of West Bengal, India, Current Nutrition and Food Science 14(5), (2018)

55. Tapan Seal, Kausik Chaudhuri and Basundhara Pillai, A Rapid High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) method for the Simultaneous Estimation of Water Soluble Vitamin in Ten Wild Edible Plants consumed by the tribal people of North-Eastern Region in India, Pharmacognosy Magazine 14(55),572-577 (2018)

56. Sudeshna Datta, Tapan Seal, Bipin K.Sinha, Soumen Bhattacharjee, HPLC based identification of water soluble vitamins and nutraceutical value of three common grasses of West Bengal. The Saudi Journal of Life Sciences, 3 (4), 373-380 (2018)

57. Kausik Chaudhuri, SK Nurul Hasan, Abir Chandan Barai, Subhajit Das, Tapan Seal and Braja Gopal Bag. Nutraceutical evaluation of Rhynchotechum ellipticum, a potent wild edible plant consumed by the tribal of North-Eastern region in India and green synthesis of gold nanoparticles using its leaf extract. Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry, 7(3): 1434-1442 (2018)

58. Sudeshna Datta, BK Sinha, Soumen Bhattacharjee and Tapan Seal. Effect of solvent extraction system on the antioxidant activities of three invasive alien species and quantification of phenolic compounds by HPLC. Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry, 7(2): 3963-3970 (2018)

59. Sudeshna Datta, BK Sinha, Soumen Bhattacharjee and Tapan Seal. Effect of solvent extraction system on the antioxidant activity and RP-HPLC based determination of phenolic and water soluble vitamins in an annual herb Mazus pumilus, The Pharma Innovation Journal, 7(6): 09-15 (2018)

60. Kausik Chaudhuri, SK Nurul Hasan, Abir Chandan Barai, Subhajit Das, Tapan Seal and Braja Gopal Bag. Green synthesis of gold nanoparticles using Wendlandia wallichii, a potent wild edible plant consumed by the tribal of north-eastern region in India. The Pharma Innovation Journal, 7(6): 437-446 (2018)

61. Sudeshna Datta, Tapan Seal, BK Sinha, Soumen Bhattacharjee. RP-HPLC based evidences of rich sources of Phenolics and water-soluble vitamins in an annual sedge Cyperus compressus. The Journal of Phytopharmacology, 7(3): 305-311 (2018)

62. Soumen Bhattacharjee, Manashi Aditya and Tapan Seal. RP-HPLC and GC-MS Based Identification of Phenolic Acids, Flavonoids and Hydroxyl Containing Compounds from One of the Lead Accessions of Amaranthus hypochondriacus L. Identified on the Basis of Biomarkers of Antioxidant Potential. Basic, Applied Pharmacy and Pharmacology 1(1), 1-8 (2018)

63. B. K. Mukherjee, Tapan Seal, Reshmi Chatterjee, Syzygiumaqueum (Burm. f.) – Watery Rose Apple: Its Morphological, Ethnobotanical and Phytochemical Appraisal. The Biobrio : an international quarterly peer reviewed journal of life Sciences, 5 (1&2) : 320-324, (2018)

64. Kausik Chaudhuri, SK Nurul Hasan, Abir Chandan Barai, Subhajit Das, Tapan Seal and Braja Gopal Bag. Green synthesis and characterization of gold nanoparticles using Bursera serrata fruit extract. Asian Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology 5 (2), 332-343(2019)

65. Sudeshna Datta, BK Sinha, Soumen Bhattacharjee, Tapan Seal, Nutritional composition, mineral content, antioxidant activity and quantitative estimation of water soluble vitamins and phenolics by RP-HPLC in some lesser used wild edible plants. Heliyon 5, 3 (1), 2019

66. S. Datta, B.K. Sinha, S. Bhattacharjee and T. Seal. Evaluation of selected invasive alien species via Bioprospecting as potential sources of food supplements. Animal Nutrition and Feed Technology 19 : 137-146 (2019)

67. Anindita Banerjeea Siddhartha Singh, Shilpi Kumari Prasad, Sourav Kumar, Oly Banerjee, Tapan Seal, Sandip Mukherjee, Bithin Kumar Maji. Protective efficacy of Tinospora sinensis against streptozotocin induced pancreatic islet cell injuries of diabetic rats and its correlation to its phytochemical profiles. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 2019 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jep.2019.112356, Accepted publication ahead)

68. Tapan Seal, Kausik Chaudhuri, Basundhara Pillai. Wild edible plants of Meghalaya State in India : Nutritional, minerals, anti-nutritional, vitamin content and toxicity studies. Pharmacognosy Magazine (2019) (Ms No pm_369_19) Accepted Publication ahead)

69. Tapan Seal, Kausik Chaudhuri, Basundhara Pillai. Nutritive scenario of wild consumable plants of Meghalaya state in India together with heavy metals, anti-nutritional, vitamin and toxicity studies. Food Chemistry X, (2019) (Elsevier Journal, Ms No Foodchem-19-10221, under review)

70. Tapan Seal, Kausik Chaudhuri, Basundhara Pillai. Nutritional, anti-nutritional, vitamin content and toxicity studies of wild edible plants devoured by the ancestral individuals of Meghalaya state in India. Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge, (2019) (Manuscript No. IJTK 609/2019, under review)

71. Tapan Seal, Kausik Chaudhuri, Basundhara Pillai. Effect of boiling and microwave cooking on nutritional, anti-nutritional and toxicity of wild edible plants of North-Eastern region in India. Annals of Agricultural Sciences (2019) (Elsevier Journal, under review)

72. Tapan Seal, Kausik Chaudhuri, Basundhara Pillai. Evaluation of antioxidant activities of various solvent extracts of Litsea cubeba fruits, toxicity studies and its DNA damage protective effects. Heliyon (2019) ( Elsevier , Heliyon D-19-02531, under review)