Betulinic Acid from Ancistrocladus Heyneanus Wall. Ex Grah.

We are in the presence of renaissance or paradigm shift, in many disciplines as we enter the new millennium. Herbal medicine is no exception. Herbalism, an arcane tradition once shrouded in mystery and understood only by a selected few, is now open to research and technological development. Ancistrocladaceae is one such monogeneric family with about 25 species of lianas include palaeotropical climbing plants, found in lowland to submontane, wet to seasonal evergreen or swamp forests. Interest in the family is due to its unique alkaloid napthylquinone alkaloids. The drugs obtained from these plants show antiviral, antimalarial, ant ineoplastic like activities. The book herein describes a methodical resource on seasonal variation in different biochemical parameters of A. heyneanus. It also enlightens the scope and gives protocols for in vitro production of callus and micropropagated plants. Total phenolic, flavonoid content and anti oxidant potential of A. heyneanus was studied. Efficiency of extraction with to yield optimum level of betulinic acid was carried. Confirmation for betulinic acid was done using different analytical methods TLC, FT-IR and FT-Raman.