A Perspective Overview on Hygrophila auriculata

Hygrophila auriculata (Schumach.) Heine belongs to family Acanthaceae found in India. It is distributed in tropical and subtropical region in india in literature. The plant is used in cancer and tubercular fistula (Root and seeds used as tonic, for asthama and dysentery.1 The leaf, root and seed of this plant are traditionally used for the treatment of inflammation, jaundice, hepatic obstruction, urinary infection, oedema, gout, diabetes, bacterial infection etc.2


INTRODUCTION
Hygrophila auriculata (Schumach.) Heine belongs to family Acanthaceae found in India. It is distributed in tropical and subtropical region in india in literature. The plant is used in cancer and tubercular fistula (Root and seeds used as tonic, for asthama and dysentery. 1

PHYTOCHEMISTRY
Phytochemically, the whole plant contains phytosterols, tannins, carbohydrates, flavonoids, terpenoids, and sterols. Phalnikar et al, analyzed the oil from the seeds and reported the presence of uronic, palmitic, stearic, oleic, and linoleic acids.Apigenin-7-O-glucuronide and apigenin-7-oglucoside were isolated from the flowers and lupeol, betulin, and stigmasterol were isolated from the plant. Alkaloids, steroids, tannins, proteins, flavonoids, carbohydrates, fats, and oils were isolated from the roots. Moreover, the leaves show the presence of alkaloids, carbohydrates, proteins, steroids, glycosides, flavonoids, tannins, phenolic compounds, fats, and oils. 4 The high-performance thin layer chromatography analysis revealed the presence of phytosterols, namely, β-sitosterol and lupeol. Maximum content of lupeol was found in the roots (0.25%), whereas the maximum content of β-sitosterol was found in the leaves (0.069%) of Asteracantha longifolia. Other isolated chemical constituents include betulin, 25-oxo-hentriacontanyl acetate, and methyl8-nhexyltetracosanoate. 5

CONCLUSION
In this systematic review, the pharmacologic studies conducted on H. auriculata indicate the immense potential of this plant in the treatment of conditions, such as diarrhea; inflammatory ailments, including liver and kidney disorders, as well as microbial and bacterial infections; cancer, and others. Regarding the plant, the studies indicate that this has an important antioxidant activity due to the presence of water-soluble compounds with potent free radicalscavenging effects, such as flavonoids, terpenoids, alkaloids, steroids, tannins that may be associated with the lower incidence and lower mortality rates of degenerative diseases in human. In spite of all these activities, a major work has been carried out on the chemical, biochemical, pharmaceutic,   Physico-chemical studies revealed alcohol soluble extractive (5.12%w/w), water soluble extractive (24.96 ), total ash (9.90), acid insoluble ash (1.48), water soluble ash (8.35% w/w), loss on drying (6.30% w/w), swelling index (2.0% w/w), foreign matter (1.10% w/w) The powerful antibacterial effect is attributed to the greater amount of tannin compound in the acetone leaf extract of Hygrophila auriculata Aerial parts of Hygrophila auriculata extract (HAEt, 100 and 250 mg/kg body weight) for 3 weeks showed significant reduction in blood glucose,

7.
Anti-endotoxin effects of terpenoids fraction from Hygrophila auriculata in lipopolysaccharide-induced septic shock in rats Pharmaceutical biology Vol 54, Issue 4, 2016 Safarajan hussain et al 12 Terpenoid fraction (TF) from alcohol (70%) extract of the whole plant of Hygrophila auriculata and assess its anti-inflammatory activity.

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Phytochemical screening, anti-oxidant activity and in vitro anti-diabetic activity of aqueous, methanolic, ethanolic and chloroformic extracts of Hygrophila auriculata International journal of pharmacy and pharmaceutical Science Vol 6, issue 5, 2014 Archit rastogi et al 13 The methanolic extract contained the maximum number of phytochemicals. The antioxidant activity, alpha amylase inhibition and glucose diffusion inhibition were all found to be high.

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Protective effect of ethanolic extract of Hygrophila auriculata seeds in cyproterone acetate-induced sexual dysfunction in male albino rats   and pharmacologic aspects of the plant and hence, an extensive investigation, especially on its clinical efficacy is needed to exploit its therapeutic utility to combat diseases. As the global interest toward traditional medicines over the conventional treatment is increasing, due to safe and well-tolerated remedies provided by them for the chronic illness with lesser side effects, this review targets H. spinosa as a potentially safe and effective plant that has important medicinal values and benefits.