Friday, August 31, 2018

Folates from Herbal sources


INTRODUCTION
Siddhars upon their intuition   quoted about water or marine products as Therapeutic agents. Oyster shells,Pearls, Corals, Amber,  Ossepiae and Conch shells are even now used much in ISM drug industry.25% of medicines mentioned by siddhars are from marine and aquatic sources Aquatic and water bed plants play major role in health care maintenance.
Nutrition from Herbal sources
Quality health care concentrated more in usage of natural resources in nutritional supplements. Synthetic and chemical nutrients have been replaced by herbal and marine resources. ”Spirulina” emerged as a competent alternative for vitamin supplements; Oyster shell calcines yielded more therapeutic calcium than synthetic. When a reference made in the prescriptions of medicines by siddhars for antenatal care ,it gave a gateway opening for identification of Nelumbium speciosum as the commonest  drug prescribed in all months. This led to a deeper research in the area of Nutraceutical usage of Nelumbium speciosum.
Nelumbium speciosum
Synonyms
                    Sanskrit              - Kamala ,Padma
                    Hindi                             - Kamal
                   Tamil                             - Ambal ,Thamarai
Research scan (previous studies)
                        water: 83.80
                   protein      : 2.7
                   fat              : 0.11
                   Reducing sugar     : 1.56
                    sucrose      :0.41 
                   starch            :9.25
                   fiber            :0.80
                   calcium            :0.06
Vitamins
                   Thiamin      :0.22
                   Riboflavin   :0.06
                   Niacin                   :2.1   
                   Amino acid :15    
Dried carpels      
                   Water                   :10.0
                   Protein                 :17.2
                   Fat              :2.4
                    Carbohydrate       :6.6
                   Fiber           :2.6
                   ash              :3.8
                   Calcium                :138
                         phosphorus    :294
                   iron                      :2.3
                   Ascorbicacid        :15
Microbial Studies
Flowers reported to posses bacterioastatic action against gram positve and gram negative bacteria
ALKALOIDS
Nuciferine,Romerine ,Nor Nuciferine,Nelumbine are the alkaloids present
Analysis of Folic acid in Lotus flowers and carpels- Methods
Folic acid the essential nutrient to run a safe antenatal period has been studied over for its presence in flower and carpels of lotus.Folic acid deficiency lead to Neural tube defects and people with bifid spine will be born.Folic acid is also useful in treating anemia and one of the best nutrient.
The sample powder of carpels and flowers are sent to CFTRI for analysis and results were discussed.One gram of the powder showed the presence of 0.20 milligram of folicacid (Joaca – 1992 Methodology )
Discussions
With the obtained results it is clear that a lotus may be a better source in an antenatal care due to the presence of folic acid (.20 mg/gm ) , iron 2.3 mgs/gm , calcium 136 mg.Being a cheaper, natural , efficacious it can be substituted for synthetic vitamins and micro nutrients after a complete pharmacological  assay.