The genera Homalomena belongs to the family Araceae of the group Monocotyledon. There are about 140 spices in tropical Asia and South America; two species in India; one in Mizoram, i.e., Homalomena aromatica Schott.
The plant is very popular among the Mizo-tribal communities. The boiled petiole is used as vegetable, rhizome as aromatic stimulant, powdered rhizome as gun-powder, burnt smoke of rhizome as mosquito repellant and infusion of the plant for easy labor. The juice of whole plant is used as lotion in skin diseases. Besides these, the plant contains strong antimicrobial activity. The minimum cidal concentration (MCC) of the oil against some common human pathogenic fungi was found to be 1.2 to 1.8µl/ml, which contains heavy inoculums density. The oils toxicity persists up to 80°C and also autoclavable, with a broad fungi toxic spectrum. The pure oil kills the test pathogenic fungi just within a minute; however, its MCC takes 5.30 to 6.30 hrs to kill all the test fungi. Besides this, while comparing the MECs of the oil with some synthetic antifungal drugs, the MECs of the oil were found to be more active than MECs of Dactrine, Nizaral and Tenaderm. Further, during pre-clinical investigations, the efficacy of oil contains 60–80% cure of the skin diseases. Based on these findings as well as after detailed in vitro, in vivo, clinical as well as multi-central clinical investigations, formulations can be transferred to the pharmaceutical companies.
Acknowledgements: 1. All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Microbiology Div. New Delhi, Dr. Uma Banerjee.
2. MLN Medical College, Allahabad, Dermatology Department, Prof. A.K. Bajaj.
References: [1] Shahi, S.K. et al. (1997) Proc. of the 4th Int. Symposium on Diagnosis and Identification of Plant Pathogens, (Eds. H.W. Dehne et al). Kluwer Academic Publishers, Netherlands.
Shahi, S.K. et al. (2000) Skin Pharmacol. Appl. 13:60–64.
