INTRODUCTION:

The Celosia species is a small genus of edible and ornamental plants belonging to Amaranthacea. The generic name is derived from the Greek word kelos, meaning "burned," and refers to the flame-like flower heads. The flowers of the species are commonly known as wool-flowers, brain celosia or cockscombs, if the flower heads are crested by fasciation or Velvet flower (in Mexico). The plants are well known in East Africa’s highlands and are used under their Swahili name, mfungu¹.

Amongst the different plants of the species, C. argenteais an important tropical leafy vegetable crop of high nutritional value.² Indian origin, C. argentea, is a plant of tropical origin and known for its very brilliant colors and traditional uses³. C. argenteais commonly named as semen celosiae, celosia, silver cock’s comb, cock’s comb, quail grass, woolflower in English. In India locally named as sitivara, vitunnaka, sunishannaka (Sanskrit), indivara, survali, safedmurga (Hindi), annesoppu, and kannehoo (Kannada).

Plant bears simple and spirally arranged leaves, often pinkish or white flowers while fruits are globular and seeds are black⁴. Genetic diversity of 16 populations of C. argenteaand 6 populations of Celosia cristataL. was investigated in China using sequence-related amplified polymorphism⁵. There are more than seventy different species are identified and among all including C. argenteaare routinely used as leafy vegetable⁶.

Celosia argentea(Family-Amaranthaceae) grows as a weed during the rainy season throughout India and other tropical regions of the world, such as Srilanka, South Asia, Africa and America.⁷An alcoholic extract of the seeds possesses aphrodisiac, antipyretic, antispasmodic, anticancer, diuretic and antibacterial. Also they are reported to be useful in jaundice, inflammation, metrrorhagia, gonorrhoea, healing of wounds and injuries.^8-10In folklore practice, the decoction of C. argenteaseeds have been reported to be useful in diabetus mellitus.¹¹

Nowadays, medicinal plants receive attention to research centres because of their special importance in safety of communities. The use of herbal medicine for the treatment of diseases and infections is as old as mankind. The curative properties of medicinal plants are due to the presence of various complex chemical substances of different composition which occur as secondary metabolites^12-13. They are grouped as alkaloids,glycosides, flavonoids, saponins, tannins, carbohydrate and essential oils. Medicinal and aromatic plants form a large group of economically important plants that provide the basic raw materials for indigenous pharmaceuticals, perfumery, flavour and cosmetic industries¹⁴.

Botanical Name:Celosia argentea.

Family:Amaranthaceae.

Vernacular Names: Kannada–Annesoppu, Kannehoo.Hindi–Survali, Safedmurga.

English–Common coxcomb, Mfungu.Sanskrit–Vitunnaka,Sitivara.Panjabi–Sarwali.¹⁵

MORPHOLOGY:

Annual erect herbs,Simple or with many ascending branches. Leaves 2-15 x 0.1-3.2 cm, lanceolate-oblong to narrowly linear, acute to obtuse, shortly mucronate with the excurrent midrib, glabrous; lamina of the leaves from the centre of the main stem tapering below into an indistinctly demarcated, slender petiole, to 2 cm long; upper and branch leaves smaller, markedly reducing. Inflorescence a dense many-flowered spike, 2.5-20 x 1.5-2.2 cm, white to pink, terminal on the stem and branches, peduncle up to c. 20 cm long; bracts and bracteoles lanceolate or the lower deltoid, 3-5 mm, hyaline, more or less aristate with the excurrent midrib, persistent. Perianth segments 6-10 mm, narrowly elliptic-oblong, acute to rather blunt, shortly mucronate, margins hyaline. Filaments very delicate, free part subequalling or exceeding the staminal sheath, sinuses rounded with very minute intermediate teeth; anthers and filaments creamy to magenta. Ovary 4-8-ovulate.Style filiform.5-7 mm long; stigmas 2-3, very short. Capsule 3-4 mm, ovoid to globose; seeds c. 1.25-1.5 mm, lenticular, black, shining, very finely reticulate_.¹⁶

Celosia species have been designated as a quantitative short-day plant, alternate entire or rarely lobed leaves. C. argentais an erect, coarse, simple, branched, smooth annual herb, normally about 0.5 to 1.5 m in height but sometimes much taller. It has few branches, at least until it approaches the time for flowering. The leaves are alternate entire or rarely lobed, light green. They are typically 2 X 6cm, although those on flowering shoots are slightly longer. Even the green foliage may contain large amounts of betalain pigments. The often brilliantly colored flowers are borne in dense heads. Most occur in spikes, and stand like spears in the garden bed. But certain cultivated forms have compact or feathery clusters due to fasciation. C. argenteaflowers yield large numbers of seeds that are about 1 mm in diameter and are normally black in colour. The Cockscomb flower blooms from late summer through late fall. C. argenteaplant is an annual dicotyledon.^(17,18,19)

Photograph showing Celosia argentea.

Fig 1: Plant ofCelosia argentea.

Fig 2: Flowers of Celosia argentea.

Fig 3: Seeds of Celosia argentea.²⁰

Chemical constituents:

The plant contains hyaluronic, tetracosanoic, stearic, palmitic, octacosanoic and betulinic acids. Presence of ß-sitosterol, tinosporin, n-hentriacontane, petulin, lupeol, cetyl alcohol, ancistrocladine, rapanone, stigmasterol, luteolin, mannitol, hordenine, proteins, vitamins and minerals have also been reported in the plant. Seeds contain a fixed oil. Two rare isoflavones have been isolated from the aerial parts.²¹

2-descarboxy-betanidin; 3-methoxytyramine;4-O-β-D_apifuranosy(l--2)- β-D-glucopyranosyl-2-hydroxy-6-methoxyacetophenone;amaranthin;betalimic acid; celogenamide A, celogentin A-D,H,J and K, celosian; celosin E,F,G; cristatain;dopamine;lyciumin A methylate; lyciumin C methylate; moroidin; nicotinic acid; (S)-tryptophan.²²

A variety of interesting but limited compounds have been isolated and identified from the plants of C. argenteawhich includes phenolics, steroids, diterpenes, and flavonoids. The recent investigations shows that, three novel triterpenoidsaponins, celosin E, celosin F and celosin G together with a known compound cristatain, were isolated from the seeds and characterized using extensive nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectroscopy (MS) technique. These three novel triterpenoidsaponins and cristatain shows the antitumor and anti-inflammatory activities by in vitro screenings.²³

Medicinal uses:

The flower and seed is astringent, haemostatic, ophthalmic, parasiticide and poultice. It is used in the treatment of bloody stool, haemorrhoid bleeding, uterine bleeding, leucorrhoea and diarrhoea. As a parasiticide it is very effective against Trichomonas, a 20% extract can cause the Trichomonas to disappear in 15 minutes. The seed is hypotensive and ophthalmic. It is used in the treatment of bloodshot eyes, blurring of vision, cataracts and hypertension, but should not be used by people with glaucoma because it dilates the pupils. The seed also has an antibacterial action, inhibiting the growth of Pseudomonas.24

Pharmacological activities:

In the recent years, the use of herbal products has been increasing in developing countries. Plants have always been an attractive source of drugs. On the other hand, intricate ways of molecular interactions and bioactivity mechanisms of the extracts or their bioactive constituents provide a challenge to the scientists²⁵. The C.argenteadisplays a wide range of pharmacological activities. A brief overview of their activities has been presented here.

Immunological activity :

The Celosian, one of the chemical constituent of C. argenteashows immunestimulating activity. Celosianis an acidic polysaccharide from the seeds of this plant. Celosian found to be a potent antihepatotoxic agent for chemical and immunological liver injury models in animals. Celosia is an immune stimulating agentbecause a study shows that it induced production of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta), nitric oxide (NO) and gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) on various in-vitro experimental methods²⁶.

Anti-inflammatory activity :

The in vivo study investigated that, the flavonoid fraction from alcoholic extract of the leaves of C. argenteafor anti-inflammatory activity in animal models like carrageenan induced rat paw edema acute inflammatory and cotton pellet induced chronic inflammatory methods²⁷. Further a study revealed the triterpenoidsaponins were isolated from the seeds of C. argenteaand named as celosin E, celosin F, celosin G, and cristatain. These active constituents are screened for their anti-inflammatory activity by in vitro methods²³.

Anti-cancer activity :

The triterpenoidsaponins were isolated from the seeds of C. argenteaand named as celosin E, celosin F, celosin G, and cristatain. These active constituents are screened for their anti-cancer activity by in vitro methods²⁸.

Hepatoprotective activity :

A study shows that hepatoprotective activity of 70% ethanolic extract of C. argenteaseeds was against carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) induced hepatic damage in rats. The study also investigated extract caused a significant reduction in lipid peroxidation (TBARS) and an elevation in antioxidant defence parameters as compared to CCl4 treated control rats²⁹.

Antioxidant activity :

Celosia argentea reported to contain high amount of plant phenolic was evaluated for its ability to scavenge the harmful radicals generated by in-vitro methods. The work was done with three extracts of C. argenteanamely, aerial part extract, seed extract and root extract. The plant is reported to be rich in phenols; the total phenolic for the seed extract was significant compared for all the three extracts. The study investigated that the ability to scavenge the generated harmful radicals was more for the seed extract followed by the aerial parts extract. However the antioxidant potential for the root extract was found to be negligible. Hence, it could be stated that seed extract of C. argenteacould help protect the damage due to harmful free radicals by scavenging and suppressing them possibly due to its abundant polyphenols²⁸.

Antimitotic activity :

The moroidin, a bicyclic peptide from the seeds of C. argentea, shows that it strongly inhibit the polymerization of tubulin³⁰.

Antibacterial activity :

A study shows that, crude alcoholic extract of Daturaalbaand C. argentealeaves were evaluated against pathogens isolated from infected burn patients. The disc-diffusion method showed significant zone of lysis against all the pathogens studied and the results are comparable to the conventional antibiotic cream namely Silver Sulphadiazine. On comparing the efficiency of the two extracts, extract of Datura alba exhibited more than 50% increase in antibacterial activity compared to C. argentea^31,32.

Wound healing activity :

The healing efficacy of alcohol extract of C. argenteain an ointment formulated (10 % w/w) using a rat burn wound model. This result confirmed that, a salutary action of the C. argenteaextract on wound healing, and also suggested that this may be due to mitogenic and motogenic promotion of dermal fibroblasts³³. C. argenteais considered as one of wound healing medicinal plant in India along with various medicinal plants like, Aloe vera, Azadirachtaindica, Carica papaya, Cinnamomumzeylanicum, Curcuma longa, Ocimumsanctum, Nelumbo nucifera, and others³⁴.

Anti-diabetic activity:

The ethanolic extract of C. argenteashows that, significant hypoglycaeimic action in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats³⁵.

Celosia argentea, LINN. Commonly known as “Cocks Comb” and its seeds are widely used in Indian folk medicine for the treatment of diabetes mellitus. This study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of an alcoholic extract of Celosia argenteaseeds (ACAS) on blood glucose and body weight in alloxan-induced diabetic rats. ACAS was found to reduce the increase of blood glucose in alloxan-induced diabetic rats (27.8% at 250 mg/kg and38.8% at 500 mg/kg body weight). Chronic administration of ACAS significantly (p,0.01) reduced the blood glucose in alloxan-induced diabetic rats for two weeks. Also the extract prevented a decrease in body weight in alloxan-induced diabetic rats. These results suggest that the ACAS possesses anti-diabetic activity in alloxan-induced diabetic rats.

CONCLUSION:

The present study indicated that Celosia argenteahas potent Anti-diabetic, Antimitotic, Anti-cancer, Anti-inflammatory, Anti-oxidant, it can be used for the development on effective herbal drug for these conditions.

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Received on 17.03.2018 Modified on 07.04.2018

Res. J. Pharmacology and Pharmacodynamics.2018; 10(2): 83-86.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5836.2018.00015.0