Phytochemical Investigations of Genus Terminalia

Genus Terminalia is known to be a rich source of secondary metabolites, mainly polypohenols and triterpenoids. About 39 species have been phytochemically studied leading to the identification of 368 compounds. This work involves the use of hyphenated mass spectrometric methods such as HPLC-ESI-QTOF-MS/MS and UPLC-ESI-QqQLIT-MS/MS for qualitative and quantitative analysis of major bioactive constituents in selected medicinal plants without isolation. It also describes the methods of mass fingerprinting and their use to investigate the plant species variations with the help of statistical software’s (PCA). Markers were identified for quality control and authentications.

Dr. Brijesh Kumar is a Professor (AcSIR) and Chief Scientist of sophisticated analytical instrument facility division, CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute Lucknow, India. He has completed his PhD from CSIR-CDRI Lucknow (Dr. RML Avadh University Faizabad UP, India).Currently he is facility in charge at Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facility (SAIF) division of CSIR-CDRI. He has to his credit more than 7 book chapters, three book and 145 papers in International journal of repute. His current area of research is applications of Mass Spectrometry tools (DART MS/Q-TOF LC-MS/4000 Q Trap LC-MS/ Orbitrap MSn) for qualitative and quantitative analysis molecules for quality control and authentication/standardization of Indian medicinal plants/parts and their herbal formulations. He is also involved in identification of marker compounds using statistical software to check adulteration/substitution.

Dr. Awantika Singh completed her PhD from the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), New Delhi, India and carried her research work under supervision of Dr. Brijesh Kumar at CSIR-Central Drug research Institute (CDRI) Lucknow. Her research includes development and validation of LC-MS/MS methods for qualitative and quantitative analysis of phytochemicals in Indian medicinal plants.

Dr. K. P. Madhusudanan is a mass spectrometry scientist born in 1947 in Kerala, India. He obtained his doctoral degree in 1975 specializing in Organic Mass Spectrometry in National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India. He worked as a scientist and Head, Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facility in Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow until 2007. His research experience since 1970 includes various aspects of organic mass spectrometry such as fragmentation mechanism, gas phase unusual reactions, positive and negative ion mass spectrometry of natural products using various ionization techniques including DART, effects of metal cationization, LC/MS and MS/MS applications and quantitative analysis of drugs and metabolites. He authored more than 150 research publications. He was a member of the editorial board of Journal of Mass Spectrometry during 1995-2007. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad, India. At present he lives in Kochi.