Journal of Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery ISSN: 2347-9027 www.jmcdd.com Page 1 Available online at http://www.jmcdd.com May- June, 2015, Vol. 2, pp 01-08 ISSN: 2347-9027 Research Article RAPID DETECTION OF IMMUNOSUPPRESSIVE ACTIVITY OF AQUEOUS EXTRACT OF CALAMUS ROTANG USING FLOW CYTOMETRY Amit Gupta 1 , Sushama R Chaphalkar 2 1 Department of Immunology, Vidya Pratishthan’s School of Biotechnology (VSBT) Vidyanagari, Baramati, District Pune, India 2 Director, Vidya Pratishthan’s School of Biotechnology (VSBT) Vidyanagari, Baramati, District Pune, India Abstract In order to determine the immunosuppressive potential of aqueous extract (i.e. stem and leaves) of Calamus rotang on nitric oxide production, estimation of blood counts (i.e. lymphocytes, monocytes as well as granulocytes count) and also determined the forward and side scatter population through flow cytometer using human whole blood. Three different concentrations (1, 10 and 30 mg/ml) of each aqueous extract (stem and leaves) were studied. The outcome of these studies showed that the stem and leaves aqueous extracts of Calamus rotang at higher doses (i.e. 30 mg/ml) inhibited or decline in the production of nitric oxide from cell culture supernatant, monocytes as well as granulocytes population in lysed human whole blood and also inhibits the forward scatter (shape and size) and increased in side scatter (granularity of the cell) which is determined through flow cytometry. Overall, these immunopharmacological studies of Calamus rotang confirmed that the aqueous extract of leaves and stem showed immunosuppressive activity. Key words: Immunosuppressive; flow cytometer; Calamus rotang Introduction Medicinal plant products have been used by primitive men and consumed for centuries as medications for number of human diseases or disorders [1, 2]. Recently, there has been more attention or emphasis on exploiting the immunobiological activities of various medicinal plant products (i.e. root, stem, leaf,