Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences1028-88801812-5735Asian Network for Scientific Information10.3923/pjbs.2013.141.144Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal. Grown in Sri Lanka]]>SiriwardaneA.S. DharmadasaR.M. SamarasingheKosala 32013163Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal. (Family: Solanaceae) is a therapeutically important medicinal plant in traditional and Ayurveda systems of medicine in Sri Lanka. Witheferin A, is a potential anticancer compound found in W. somnifera. In the present study, attempts have been made to compare witheferin A content, in different parts of (root, stem, bark, leaf) two varieties of (LC1 and FR1) W. somnifera grown in same soil and climatic conditions. Ground sample (1g) of leaves, bark, stem and roots of two W. somnifera varieties were extracted with CHCl3 three times. Thin Layer Chromatographic analysis (TLC) of withaferin A in both plant extracts were performed on pre-coated Silica gel 60 GF254 plates in hexane: ethyl acetate: methanol (2: 14: 1) mobile phase. Densitometer scanning was performed at λmax = 215 nm. HPLC of W. somnifera extracts was performed using Kromasil C18 reverse phase column. Both varieties of W. somnifera differed in withaferin A. After visualizing TLC plates with vanillin-sulphuric acid leaf and bark extracts of both varieties showed high intensity purple colour spots (Rf 0.14) than in stem and roots. The highest amount of withaferin A (3812 ppm) was observed in leaves of variety LC1 while the lowest amount was observed in roots of variety FR1 (5 ppm). According to the results it could be concluded that content of Witheferin A was vary leaf> bark> stem > roots in both varieties. Therefore, there is a high potential of incorporation of leaves and bark of W. somnifera for the preparation of Ayurveda drug leading to anticancer activity instead of roots.]]>Annonymous,19791979Abraham, A., I. Kirson, E. Glotter and D. Lavie,1968Withania somnifera (L.) dun.]]>7957962Bargagna-Mohan, P., A. Hamza, Y.E. Kim, Y.K. Ho and N. Mor-Vaknin et al.,200714623634Choudhary, M.I., S. Hussain, S. Yousuf, A. Dar, Mudassar and Atta-ur-Rahman,2010Withania somnifera and their cytotoxic effects against human lung cancer cell line.]]>7122052209Devi, P.U. and R. Kamath,20034416Dhar, R.S., V. Verma, K.A. Suri, R.S. Sangwan and N.K. Satti et al.,2006Withania somnifera.]]>6722692276Gupta, A.P., R.K. Verma, H.O. Misra and M.M. Gupta,1996Withania somnifera by TLC densitometry.]]>18788790Jayaweera, B.M.A.,1982Pages: 341Pages: 341Malik, F., A. Kumar, S. Bhushan, S. Khan and A. Bhatia et al.,20071221152133Mirjalili, M.H., E. Moyano, M. Bonfill, R.M. Cusido and J. Palazon,2009Withania somnifera, an ancient plant for novel Medicine.]]>1423732393Sethi, P.D., A.R. Thiagarajan and S. Sankarasubramanian,19702165172Shohat, B., M. Ben-Bassat, A. Shaltiel and H. Joshua,197626370Shohat, B., S. Gitter, A. Abraham and D. Lavie,196751271276Srinivasan, S., R.S. Ranga, R. Burikhanov, S.S. Han and D. Chendil,200767246253Stan, S.D., E.R. Hahm, R. Warin and S.V. Singh,2008in vivo.]]>6876617669Yang, H., G. Shi and Q.P. Dou,200771426437Yu, Y., A. Hamza, T. Zhang, M. Gu and P. Zou,201079542551