The Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, has come up with a technology for producing some useful chemicals from dried mango leaves, which are abundantly available in India.
The Institute says that Mangiferin is a major component of mango leaves and is also an important natural drug with wide applications in pharma and cosmetic industries.
Mangiferin has Analgesic, antidiabetic, antisclerotic, atimicrobial and antiviral, anti-inflammatory, antiallergic properties. Several studies have indicated the ability of Mangiferin to inhibit cancerogenesis and cancer cells growth.
But, surprisingly, at present, it is imported. ICT says it is priced Rs 20,000 a kg in the market.
However, you can extract Mangiferin from dried mango leaves. The technology is available for transfer.
ICT provides the highlights of the technology as follows:
1. Optimized the method to achieve maximum extraction of mangiferin from dried mango leaves of mango trees
2. Developed a continuous extraction process using screw conveyor
3. Optimized concentration process for 1% mangiferin extract
4. Utilization of solid residue to make briquettes (calorific value 3500-4000 Kcal/Kg) generating no waste in process.
5. Studied different therapeutic properties of mangiferin extract and compared with standard mangiferin and drugs. The IC90 values for both a-amylase inhibition assay and a-glucosidase inhibition assay show that mangiferin can be highly efficacious in the treatment of diabetes.
Various products are available in the market that use mangiferin for the pharmalogical and cosmetic industries. Yves Rocher, France has launched various products containing Mangiferin as one of the prominent ingredients to resolve beauty issues. Various medicines related to Mangiferin are nowadays available which deal with issues of diabetes and obesity.
India has a large number of mango trees generating huge amounts of dried mango leaves as a solid waste. Hence, utilization of waste leaves in a proper way has become a concern necessitating the development of proper extraction methods for extracting valuable biomolecules from the waste leaves. Mangiferin is reported to be present in high quantities in various parts of Mangiferin indica, which belongs to the family of Anacardiaceae. It is plant derived natural polyphenol which is abundantly found in Mangifera indica leaves.
For further details, contact:
Prof. Virendra K. Rathod Chemical Engineering Department, Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Matunga, Mumbai 400 019. Email id: vk.rathod@ictmumbai.edu.in
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