Chemical standardisation and cultivation of traditional chinese medicine-orchid family

• Main Author: Tan, Swee Ngin.
• Other Authors: National Institute of Education
• Format: Research Report
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences::Botany; DRNTU::Engineering::Environmental engineering::Water treatment
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/42836
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The original objectives were as follows: (i) To isolate and characterize bioactive or marker compounds present in Gastrodia elata Blume (Tianma)and Dendrobium species (Shihu). (ii) From the compounds obtained from (i), we can proceed to develop novel approaches for the rapid extraction and chemical standardization of medicinal plants for therapeutics uses. The proposed method will minimize or eliminate the use of organic solvents in the extraction processes. (iii) Cultivation of medicinal plants under good agriculture practice (GAP) –optimization of growth medium and characterization as in (i). (iv) Comparison of chemical profiles for plants species in the wild and herbs grown in (iii). (v) Chemical methods developed for the above herbs would be used to explore potential tropical orchids. (vi) To provide facilities and opportunities for students of various levels, from science mentorship project students, NRP, undergraduate, postgraduate students, as well as in service teachers, to participate in this inter-disciplinary scientific project work. Under this grant, one of the key objectives of the project was to develop and evaluate green solvent extraction methods to extract bioactive or maker compounds from medicinal plants aid in chemical standardization for quality control purposes. Two efficient, environmentally friendly (i.e. with minimum or no organic solvent usage) and low cost extraction methods (namely the pressurized hot water extraction (PHWE) and microwave-assisted extraction (MAE)) have been developed for the extraction of bioactive compounds present in several Traditional Chinese Medicinal (TCM) herbs and one non-TCM medicinal plants. The studied TCM includes the Gastrodia elata Blume (“Tianma” in Chinese) which is known for its anti-epilpesy properties, Coptidis rhizome (“Huanglian” in Chinese and Scutellaria baicalensis (“Huangqin” in Chinese) which are both known for their anti-viral and bacteria values.