Abstract BACKGROUND: According to Ayurvedic texts, the heartwood of Pterocarpus marsupium Roxb. is used in treatment of Krimiroga (worm infestation), Kustha (leprosy), Prameha (diabetes), Pandu (anemia), and Medodosa (obesity). Detachment of heartwood from the tree log may weaken the plant, making it susceptible to damage by natural elements and insects. Hence, the accessibility of the P. marsupium plant may be hard in the future for practice in the traditional medicine system. Therefore, there is an urgent need to explore the probability of using small branches as the proposed plant part in place of the official plant part, heartwood. METHODS: Chemical profiling of P. marsupium was carried out by using various techniques such as high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC), high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and HR-liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LCMS)/MS for comparing heartwood and small branches of the plant. The HPLC technique is used to identify and quantify the catechin content in the plant extracts and for chemical profiling of all the extracts of official and proposed parts of this plant. The docking and MD simulation studies were also carried out. RESULTS: The similarities observed in phytochemical constituents, HPTLC/HPLC/LCMS profiles, and quantitative analysis of catechin content suggest that small branches of P. marsupium possess identical active chemical constituents as heartwood and hence suggest the possibilities of using its small branches in place of heartwood, which will help promote sustainable utilization of medicinally important plants. The docking result showed that 12 compounds have the highest binding affinity with the target protein. The MD simulation of tumor necrosis factor-alpha with phenethyl 6-galloylglucoside showed the highest stability and low deviation at 300 k through RMSD values (0.4–8 A°) when analyzed at a 100 ns time frame. The active constituents of extracts showed good anticancer activity in MD simulation. CONCLUSION: In essence, the study indicates that small branches of P. marsupium could be a potential alternative to heartwood in pharmacological applications, provided further research confirms their activity in terms of the efficacy and safety. The current research lays the foundation for further study to explore small branches instead of heartwood and vice-versa after analyzing the pharmacological studies and confirming the same.
Meena et al. (Thu,) studied this question.