Biodeterioration of drug punarnava at different relative humidity

The plant Boerhaavia diffusa commonly called as 'punarnava' belonging to family Nyctaginaceae. It is found all over the India, especially abundant during rains. It is a well-known medicinally important plant. Root is used medicinally in Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Tibbi systems. Powdered root is used in oedema, anemia, heart disease, cough, intestinal colic, hemorrhage, biliousness, scanty urine and in internal inflammation (4). It contains about 0.04% alkaloid known as Punarnavine and Punarnavoside an antifibrinolytic agent. It also contains about 6% of potassium nitrate, oily substance and ursolic acid (2).Extensive work on association of mycoflora on stored drugs have been reported by some ethnomycologists (7).Medicinal plants are known to be infected by number of deleterious fungi due to traditional unscientific storage methods (6) due to which chemical constituents deteriorates in the drugs. However, the information is still inadequate. Hence it has been attracted attention towards this problem. Therefore, biodeterioration of drug Boerhaavia diffusa ' punarnava' has been studied under the influence of relative humidities.