Chemosystematic investigation of Juniperus diversity in cold desert of Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

newline xii newlineABSTRACT newlineThe genus Juniperus is widely distributed in the north hemisphere (cold desert) and wellknown newlinesource of cedar wood oil as well as folk medicine. Juniperus has been reported as newlinediuretic, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, hepatoprotective, antidiabetic, antihyperlipidemic, newlineantimicrobial, antioxidant, antihypercholesterolemic, anticataleptic and neuroprotective newlineactivity. Keeping in view the above traditional and medicinal properties, three important newlinespecies of Juniper (J. communis, J. macropoda and J. recurva) were collected from three newlinedifferent regions of cold desert of north western Himalayas of Himachal Pradesh (Kalpa, newlineChitkul and Pooh). The studies were conducted taking into account the different newlineparameters like physicochemical characterstics of soil, biochemical analysis of leaves and newlineberries and quantitative determination of bioactive components by GCMS in essential oil newlineand HPLC in extracts respectively. Further chemometric analysis was carried forward to newlineassist the significance and structural analysis using scatter plot(SP), principle component newlineanalysis (PCA), discriminant analysis (DA), and hierarchical cluster analysis(HCA). The newlineresults obtained for the above incorporated methodologies displayed a positive correlation newlinebetween soil and biochemical analysis of berries and leaves samples with increasing newlinealtitude. Quantification of secondary metabolites from essential oils showed maximum newlineyield (2.08%) in berries sample of J. recurva and minimum (1.26%) was recorded in newlineleaves samples of J. macropoda. In addition, monoterpene hydrocarbons like and#946;- newlinephellandrene, and#946;-pinene, 3-Carene, and#945;-Pinene, Limonene and Sabinene were dominant in newlineleaves and berries as compared to the sesquiterpenes (hedycaryol, and#945;-humulene, (E)-and#946;- newlineFarnesene, (+)-germacrene-D, and#945;-himachalene etc). The studies further summarize that newlinehigher rutin and quercetin content (39.49 and#956;g/ml and 12.65 and#956;g/ml) was observed in berries newlineof J. communis and minimum was reported in the leaves J. macropoda (rutin 5.70 and#956;g/ml newlineand quercetin 1.07 and#956;g/ml). Chemometric analysis of the data obtained from GCMS newlineindicates 3-Carene as the most dominant compound with respect to PCA and DA. Four newlineclusters were observed in the hierarchical cluster analysis specifying closely related newlinelinkage between J. macropoda and J. recurva whereas; J. communis was identified with a newlinelarge diverging pattern from the other two species. The study finally explored the newlinepotential related to Juniper in terms of healthcare and industrial applications and can be newlinefurther utilized for the industrial purposes, cosmetics, health sector and pharmaceutics. newlineKeywords: Juniperus communis, J. macropoda J. recurva, Soil analysis, newlineBiochemical analysis, Chemometric, Principle component analysis Hierarchial newlineclustering.