Extraction and characterization of oil from seeds of the medici-nal plant Withania coagulans (Stocks) Dunal (Doda paneer)

Abstract

Withania coagulans (Stocks) Dunal commonly known as Doda panner/ Indi-an Rennet is a well-known medicinal plant but remains underutilized mainly due to scarce distribution in nature and extremely poor germination rate. In the present study oil was extracted from seeds of Withania coagulans which was subsequently subjected to FTIR and GC-MS analysis to identify phyto-chemical components of extracted oil. FTIR analysis revealed presence of diverse group of compounds including alcohols, alkane, alkene, aldehyde, ketone and halo compounds. GC-MS analysis depicted presence of 49 phy-toconstituents in the oil extracted from seeds of W. coagulans. among which hexanoic acid, n-hexadecenoic acid, Vitamin E, gamma-Tocopherol, squa-lene, fucosterol, 2-Pyrrolidinone, 1-methyl, octadecanoic acid represent major phytoconstituents identified. Several compounds identified to be present in extracted oil have been reported to possess one or more pharma-cological activity. Hence, the study suggests validation of plant oil to be uti-lized as ingredient of different pharmacological, cosmetic and other food products.