Impact of Biodiversity on Umbelliferone Content of Aegle marmelos (Rutaceae)

Aegle marmelos L (Rutaceae) is a moderately sized deciduous tree, growing wild throughout the deciduous forests of India. The fruit contains allo-imperatorin, marmelosin, psoralen and umbelliferone [1]. While the leaves contain alkaloids (aegelenine and aegeline), tannins, phlobatannins, flavonoids, umbelliferone and volatile oils [2]. The leaves are reported to possess cardiotonic, anti diabetic and anti oxidant activities. In the present investigation an attempt has been made to study the effect of biodiversity on the content of umbelliferone of A marmelos. Different samples of A. marmelos leaves were collected from UP, Haryana, Punjab and Delhi and analyzed for umbelliferone content.

The content of umbelliferone in leaves of different samples (UP, Haryana, Punjab and Delhi) was found to be 0.32%w/w, 0.26%w/w, 0.22%w/w and 0.18%w/w respectively. Differences in the content of umbelliferone might be due to the effect of environmental factors on enzyme and co enzyme systems involved in the biosynthesis of umbelliferone. The findings of the present study suggested that biodiversity play an important role the life of the plant. Acknowledgements: The author wishes to acknowledge Jamia Hamdard for financial support. References: [1] Patra A, Mukhopadhyay AK, et al. (1979) Indian J Chem 17B: 85–387. [2] Chatterjee A, Bose S. (1952)J Indian Chem Soc 29: 425–429.