Seasonal Impact on The Synthesis of Foliar Bioactive Components in Centella asiatica L. Urban

Abstract

Estimation of foliar bioactive components (viz. photosynthetic pigments, nutrients, alkaloids, polyphenol and antioxidant activities) of Centella asiatica L. Urban were studied in four different seasons (EM: early monsoon- March, April and May; M: Monsoon-June, July and August; LM: Late Monsoon- September, October and November and W: Winter- December, January and February) within a year. A pot culture based experiment was conducted at the Botanical Garden, University of Chittagong. Maximum foliar photosynthetic pigments, nutrients were observed in monsoon and minimum in winter respectively. Whilst the highest alkaloid content was observed in early monsoon and the lowest in winter. Moreover the maximum polyphenol content and antioxidant activity were observed in the leaf extract of late monsoon and the minimum in winter respectively. The present study concludes that monsoon is suitable for efficient photosynthesis as well as nutrient accumulation in Centella, early monsoon is favorable for alkaloid synthesis and late monsoon is the right time for harvesting Centella to obtain maximum antioxidant activity for medicinal use.