Jagdish Singh, Maheshwar, Jyotiraditya Das, Vaneet Jishtu and Swaran Lata

Secondary metabolites, commonly known as phytochemicals, can be extracted from fruits, leaves, bark and roots of floral components and are responsible for biosynthesis of endogenous compounds through specialized proteins found in plants. These metabolites are not only helpful in promoting human health but also crucial for plants themselves as they enhance the plant immune system which leads to predator avoidance. IHR (Indian Himalayan Region) is a natural storehouse of such valuable medicinal flora. Some of the medicinal herbs are very lesser known in spite being having tremendous curative measures. One such important herb is Thymus linearis Benth. L., which comes under the genus Thymus and family Labiateae. T. linearis commonly known as “Van Ajwain” is a perennial herb, that has the centre of origin in the Northern and Central European region, and naturally grows in the Himalayan Forest under wild conditions. This herb has an immense therapeutic utilization and is used in preparations of natural herbal remedies such as syrups, tinctures, infusions, decoctions, tea, and oil as this species has antiseptic, anthelmintic, carminative, expectorant and sedative characteristics.
So, the current investigation mostly focuses on the quantification of four major phytochemicals i.e., total phenolic compounds, alkaloids, saponin and total flavonoid in the samples of T. linearis collected from different sites of Himachal Pradesh. The quantification value shows a great variation of 0.815%±0.50, 45.359±0.50 mg GAE/g, 1.48%±0.50 and 3.578±0.50 mg QE/g for alkaloid, total phenolic compound, saponin and flavonoid respectively. A number of physiographic, physiognomic and edaphic factors may be responsible for such variation in Phyto-chemical constituents of T. linearis in different geographic regions of Himachal Pradesh.
 

DOI: 10.22271/phyto.2024.v13.i1b.14817

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