Pharmacognosy

• • Sources : corn, wheat, rice, sago, honey, sugar cane, sugar beets, sugar maple - hydrolysis of starch; product of hydrolysis of sucrose.
• Carbohydrates are aldehydes or ketone derivatives of polyhydric alcohols containing C, H and O and are generally in the same ratio as in H2O (2:1).
• Sugars are monosaccharides that cannot be hydrolyzed to simple sugar substances and are ketonic or aldehydic substitution products of polyhydric alcohols.
• Trioses are C3H6O3.
• Tetrose is C4H8O4.
• Pentoses are C5H10O5, including xylose, ribose, arabinose, and rhamnose, which occur in nature usually as products of hydrolysis of hemicellulose, gums and mucilages.
• Hexoses are glucose, galactose, mannose, and fructose, which are the most important monosaccharides found in plants and are the first detectable sugars synthesized by plants.
• Oligosaccharides are composed of more than one saccharide group.
• Disaccharides are sucrose, lactose, and maltose.
• Polysaccharides are homoglycans and heteroglycans.
• The production of monosaccharides by photosynthesis is a biologic process that converts electromagnetic energy into chemical energy, consisting of two classes of reactions: light reaction that actually convert electromagnetic energy into chemical energy and enzymatic reaction that utilizes the energy from the light reaction to fix carbon dioxide into sugar (dark reactions).
• Mannitol is used as an osmotic diuretic and diagnostic aid, with a usual diagnostic dose of 200mg/kg in a 15 - 25% sol IV in 3 - 5 min.
• The systematic nomenclature of polysaccharides end in “an”.
• Starch, a polysaccharide, has a botanical origin in Zea mays, Graminae (matured grain of corn), Triticum aestivum (wheat), and Solanum tuberosum, Solaneceae (potato tubers).
• Starch is a linear molecule composed of 250 to 300 D - glucopyranose units uniformly linked by alpha 1,4 glucosidic bonds, is soluble in water, contains 25% in starch, and has a deep blue complex when reacted with iodine.
• Homoglycans contain one type of monosaccharide unit, while heteroglycans contain more than one kind of monosaccharide unit.
• Mannitol (D - mannitol) is a hexahydric alcohol obtained by reduction of mannose or by isolation from Manna, a dried saccharine exudates of Fraxinus ornus, Oleaceae, containing 50 to 60% of mannitol.
• Sorbitol has half the sweetness of sucrose, is a useful ingredient in toothpaste, chewing gums and various dietetic products.
• Sorbitol (D - glucitol) is a hexitol obtained from the ripe berries of mountain ash, Sorbus aucuparia, Rosaceae, known as a well known hexahydric sugar alcohol.
• Polysaccharides are polymers of monosaccharides (sugar) linked together through glycosidic (ether) linkages.
• The usual diuretic dose of mannitol is 50 - 100 g daily dose in a 5 - 25% solution, IV infusion.
• Starch is an organic compound widely distributed in plants and is a permanent reserve food material in plants.
• Glycan is another word for polysaccharides.
• Sucrose, also known as saccharum, cane sugar, beet sugar, and table sugar, is produced by sugar cane, sugar beets, and sugar maple.
• DEXTRAN is a botanical product obtained from Leuconostoc mesenteroides, a 1,6 - linked polyglucan formed from sucrose by the action of a transglucosylase enzyme (dextran sucrase).
• Hetastarch is a semisynthetic material that is prepared in such a manner that it is approximately 90% amylopectin, and is used as a plasma expander.
• Sources of commercially useful gums include shrub/tree exudates (acacia, karaya, tragacanth, ghatti), marine gum (agar, algin, carrageenan), seed gums (guar, locust gum, psyllium), and microbial (dextran, xanthan).
• Inulin or hydrous inulin is a D - fructo - furanose polymer obtained from the subterranean organs of members of family Compositae.
• Sodium Starch glycolate is a semisynthetic material, the sodium salt of a carboxymethyl ether of starch, and is used as a disintegration agent in tablet formulation.
• Pregelatinized starch is starch that has been chemically or mechanically processed to rupture all parts of the granules in the presence of water.
• Amylopectin consists of 1000 or more glucose units that are also connected with alpha1,4 linkages, making it a branched component of starch.
• Heteroglycans are natural plant hydrocolloids that may be classified as anionic or nonionic polysaccharides or salt of polysaccharides, translucent, amorphous substances that are produced frequently in high plants as a protective after injury.
• Starch contains 75 - 80% amylopectin.
• Cellulose is the most abundant organic compound on earth, the chief polysaccharide of plant cell walls, and is purified from Cotton, also referred to as absorbent cotton, which is employed as a surgical dressing.
• Amylopectin has a blue - violet or purple color when reacted with iodine.
• Dextrose, also known as blood sugar, D-glucose, and alpha-D (+) – glucopyranose, is produced by grapes and is a product of hydrolysis of starch or the product of hydrolysis of sucrose.
• Cheese is skimmed milk plus rennin.
• Buttermilk is a liquid that separates from butter.
• Whey is a liquid separated from the coagulum.
• Citric Acid, also known as 2-hydroxy 1,2,3, propane trioic acid, was isolated in crystal form from lemon juice by Scheele in 1784, and is commercially available from lemons, limes or pineapple but mostly by fermentation of sucrose.