View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by International Journal of Phytomedicine International Journal of Phytomedicine 2 (2010) 10-17 http://www.arjournals.org/ijop.html Review ISSN: 0975-0185 Phytochemical and pharmacological Potential of Kair (Capparis Decidua) Sushila Rathee1*, Permender Rathee1, Dharmender Rathee2, Deepti Rathee2, Vikash Kumar1 *Corresponding author: Abstract Sushila Rathee 1PDM College of Pharmacy, Capparis decidua (Forsk.) is belonging to family Capparidaceae, yet Bahadurgarh important medicinal plant of Indian Medicinal Plants. In the traditional Haryana system of medicine, the bark has been shown to be useful in the treatment of India coughs, asthma and inflammation; roots used in fever and buds in the Email: treatment of boils. In Unani, leaves act as appetizer, helps in cardiac troubles, fruits used in biliousness. The plant is reported to contain Phytochemicals [email protected] including alkaloids, terpenoids, glycosides and some fatty acids. In Unani, 2JCDM College of Pharmacy, leaves act as appetizer, helps in cardiac troubles, used in biliousness; Sirsa alveolaris and pyorrhea; Root bark is used as anthelmintic and purgative. The Haryana plant have significant pharmacological activities like hypercholesterolemic, India anti-inflammatory and analgesic, antidiabeti, antimicrobial, antiplaque, antihypertensive, antihelmintic & purgativ activities. The review analyses phytochemical and pharmacological potential of medicinal plant (kair). Keywords: Capparis decidua, traditional system of medicine, alkaloids, Phytochemical, Pharmacology. Introduction The genus Capparis comprises 250 species including shrubs, trees and woody climbers. Capparis decidua (Forsk.) Edgew commonly known as karel, karer, karil, karu etc, is a densely branching shrub or small tree of the Thar Desert [1]. It is also found in the subtropical and tropical zones and other arid regions in southern Asia with a mass of slender, 4-5 m high, or occasionally a small tree with many green vine- like apparently leafless branches, hanging in bundles (Fig 1). The bark turns into whitish-grey colour with age, but most of the branches and Fig. 1: The plant Capparis decidua with stem, twigs are a glossy dark green in colour. Small, fruits and flowers doi:10.5138/ijpm.2010.0975.0185.02002 ©arjournals.org, All rights reserved. Rathee et al: International Journal of Phytomedicine 2 (2010) 10-17 light brown spines occur in pairs on the twigs at Kannada: Chippuri, karira, kareera, kareeuppina each node. Leaves are very minute (2 mm long), gida, kiruli, nispatley gida, kari uppina with a very short life span on young shoots, so gida that the plant looks leafless most of the time. The Malayalam : Karimulli, karimullu new flush of leaves appears in November- Marathi : Karil, ker, nevati January. Flowers are pink in colour, red-veined, Persian : Bergesodab in small groups along the leafless shoots, in the Sanskrit : patra, granthila, granthila, gudhapatra, axils of the spines. Red conspicuous flowers kantaki, karaka, karira, karira, karira, appear in March to April and August-September karirah, karirah, kataphala, krakara, and ripe by May and October. Fruit are small krakatha,mriduphala, nigudhapatra, many-seeded ovoid or sub-globulous, slightly nishpatra, nishpatrika, maruruhu, mucronate pink berry of the size and shape of a krishashakha, mar vidahika, cherry, becomes blackish when dry. The generic marubharuha, shakapushpa, shatakunta, name is derived from the Arabic ‘kapar’, the shonapushpa, suphala, tikshnakantaka, name for Capparis spinosa. tikshnasara, ushnasundara, vishvakpatra, It coppices well and produces root suckers freely. ubhuruha It is extremely drought-resistant and tolerates Tamil : Kulaladondai, sengam, senkam, sirakkali, some frost. This is a useful plant in its marginal sirakkali, sengam, kulalatontai, habitat. Its spicy fruits are used for preparing cattiputpam, cattiracoputpam, inaikaravi, vegetables, curry and fine pickles and can attract cinaikaravicceti, ciracukkilam, helpful insectivores; the plant also is used in folk cirakakoli, cirakatantai, cirakkoli, medicine and herbalism. Capparis decidua can be cirakkoli, cirakkoli, ciratci, cutakkini, used in landscape gardening, afforestation and kariram, kelal, kentikam, kuraram, reforestation in semi desert and desert areas; it marupurukam 2, palaccaka, vayacca, provides assistance against soil erosion [2, 3]. vayaccam, venu This species is common in dry tropical Africa, Talugu : Kariramu especially in the Sahel, where it sometimes Tibetan : Karira, karira, rgyasnalu, rgya sneu constitutes lines of small trees in Wadi beds, as in (p& d), uboka (d), upotaka (p), Mauritania for instance. In West Africa, the area upota kila of distribution is identical to that of Cadaba Urd : Titali, ab karir, kachia phal arinose; its southern limit corresponds to the Rajasthan : Kair, Dhalu northern loop of the Senegal River. In the Fruit : Laddu Republic of Niger it reaches the Konadougou. Its Rajasthan : Ker (Jaisalmer district) area includes Tibesti (West Chad), much of the Synonym : Capparis aphylla Roth Sudan (except the extreme South) the Arabian Peninsula, Jordan, India, Pakistan, Iran, the The fruits of C. decidua (green berries) are used in Mascarene Islands and Natal. It is tolerant to food preparations like pickles due to the belief that prolonged drought and an interesting plant by it has antidiabetic action. In the traditional system reason of its excellent adaptation to arid of medicine, the bark has been shown to be useful conditions [4]. in the treatment of coughs, asthma and inflammation; roots used in fever and buds in the Vernacular name: The plant name is available treatment of boils. In Unani, leaves act as appetizer, in the following languages helps in cardiac troubles, fruits used in biliousness; English : Caper Shoots along with shoots of Peganum harmala Hindi : Karel, karer, karil, karu, kurel, kurrel, used as anti fertility drug; Ground stem and leaves lete, satari, karer used in alveolaris and pyorrhea; Root bark is used Arabic : Hanbag, margh, sodab, tundub as anthelmintic and purgative; Wood coal used in 11 Rathee et al: International Journal of Phytomedicine 2 (2010) 10-17 muscular injuries [5-7]. In Sudan, C. decidua is H2N H used in swellings, jaundice and infection of joints. N NH2 Phytoconstituents of Plant The plant is found to reveal the presence of a number of alkaloids, terpenoids, glycosides and Fig. 2: Spermidine alkaloid some fatty acids. The different phytoconstituents of different plant parts are as follows: H N O Root bark: Two sterols, one diterpene alcohol, two NH aliphatic constituents and one diterpenic ester were reported from C. decidua root barks. β-Sitosterol O N was isolated from the roots by extracting with H ethanol and chromatographing the alcoholic extract on neutral alumina with the eluents benzene, ether, chloroform and methanol successively. The structures of the sterols were established as 24-β- O methylcholest-7-ene-22-one-3 β-ol and 24- β - OH methylcholest-9 (11)-ene-22-one-3α-ol. The H3CO structure of diterpene alcohol was identified as 3- methyl-7- hydroxymethylene-10-(12, 16, 16- trimethylcyclohex-11-enyl) - dec-9-ene-5-one-8-ol. Fig. 3: Isocodonocarpine Butyl-3-oxoeicosanoate and 25-oxooctosan- 1, 20- diol were the aliphatic constituents. The diterpenic ester was identified as 9-(11, 15, 15- trimethylcyclohex-11-ene-13-one-yl)-one-6- H N O hydroxymethylene-7-one-yl, 4’-Me heptanoate [8]. NH From the root bark, spermidine alkaloids (Fig. 2) H like Isocodonocarpine (Fig. 3) [9], Capparisinine N (Fig. 4) [10- 12], Capparadisine (Fig. 5) [13,] were O isolated. Six oxygenated heterocyclic constituents capparisesterpenolide (3-carboxy-6, 17-dihydroxy- OMe 7, 11, 15, 19- tetramethyleicos-13-ene-d-lactone) and deciduaterpenolides (Fig. 6) (d-lactone derivatives of 1, 3, 3-trimethyl- 1, 4-cyclohexadien- O 6-one) A, B, C, D and E from alcoholic extract of H3CO root bark [14]. The root bark also contains alkaloids [15], 14-N-acetyl isocodonocarpine (Fig. OH 7), 15-N-acetyl capparisine (Fig. 8), Cadabicine (Fig. 9) [16], Stachydrine (Fig. 10), Rutin (Fig. 11), Fig. 4: Capparisinine capparisine (Fig. 12) [17] and codonocarpine (Fig. 13). 12 Rathee et al: International Journal of Phytomedicine 2 (2010) 10-17 H CH3 N O H NH N O C= O H NH N O N O O H3CO O OH H3CO OH Fig. 5: Capparidisine H3CO Fig. 8: 15- N- acetyl capparisine H N O NH O N H Fig. 6: Decidua terpenolide A O OH CH 3 H Fig. 9: Cadabicine N O NH C= O O N (CH3)2 N+ O - OH H3CO COO Fig. 7: 14-N- acetylcodonocarpine Fig. 10: Stachydrine 13 Rathee et al: International Journal of Phytomedicine 2 (2010) 10-17 OH Root: Colorless, crystalline and hygroscopic alkaloids Capparine (M. P. 2360C, HO O 0 C15H35N3O6.2H2O), Cappariline (M. P. 188 C, OH C15H35N3O6.5H2O) and Capparinine (M. P. 2360C) were isolated from roots of C. decidua by O extracting roots with ethanol and O OH chromatographed on neutral alumina column with OH O O chloroform-methanol (90:10, 80:20, 50:50, O HH 20:80) respectively [13]. HO H OH Stem: The chromatographic separation of the HO OH H OH aerial parts of C. decidua afforded one shikimate derivative, two acycylic terpenoids, four fatty Fig. 11: Rutin acids, two sterols and two lupine terpenoids [14]. The stem contains two alkaloids n-triacontanol (Fig. 14), 2-carboxy-1, 1-dimethylpyrrolodine H (stachydrine). N O NH H C-(CH ) -CH OH H 3 2 28 2 N O Fig. 14: n-Triancontanol Water soluble stachydrine (2-Carboxy-1, 1- dimethyl Pyrrolidine) alkaloid was isolated from the fruit pulp, fruit husk, flowers and root bark. Fruits and Seed: From the methanolic extract of O H3CO the seeds, Glucocapparin (Fig. 15) and a highly antibacterial volatile compound, Methyl OH isothiocyanate (Fig. 16), were obtained. 5 Fig. 12: Capparisine glycosides were isolated from the flowers. H N O NH H N O Fig. 15: Glucocapparin O OH H3CO Fig. 13: Codonocarpine Fig. 16: Methyl isothiocyanate 14 Rathee et al: International Journal of Phytomedicine 2 (2010) 10-17 Unsaponifiable fraction of fruit husk and seeds Pharmacological Potential of Plant contained N-pentacosane, β-Sitosterol (Fig.