JEES Vol. 1 Issue 2 / Mitra et. al., 2017 49 THE JOURNAL OF ECONOMY, ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY a multidisciplinary journal of advanced studies Journal homepage: www.hazidesaratcollege.org/JOURNAL Traditional uses and phytochemistry of Ampelocissus latifolia (Roxb.) Planch tuberous root through GC–MS technique Souvik Mitra 1 , Debatri Banerjee 2 & Manasi Mandal 3 *, 1 Assistant Professor in Botany, Darjeeling Government College, Darjeeling, West Bengal, India 2 &3 Sundarban Hazi Desarat College, Pathankhali, South 24pgs, West Bengal, India 3 Corresponding author: Tel- +919433743341, E.mail: manasimandal175@yahoo.com ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Article history: Original paper received on: 28.03.2017 Revised paper received on: 30.03.2017 Paper accepted on: 31.03.2017 Keywords: Traditional use, GC–MS Analysis, Ampelocissus latifolia (Roxb.) Planch. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1. Introduction Phytoconstituents of medicinal plants are produced within the plants and form integral defence system against a wide spectrum of ailments. These bioactive constituents from ethno–medicinal plants is in turn useful to treat diseases of humans directly or indirectly leading to economic and socio–cultural progress specially to the developing country where medicinal health service is very limiting. The tribals mostly depend on the forest resources, products and medicinal plants for their daily chores and survivility. Documentation of information about these non–conventional medicinal plants used by the ethnic people have become very necessary to restore the dying folk lore due to ignorant new generation. Although in present situation people mostly depends on allopathatic and synthetic drugs to combat diseases which are expensive and prolonged consumption has adverse effect. As such the indigenous remedies from plant source are gaining importance. Systematic chemical analysis and screening of the chemicals generated by plants is very necessary to identify the chemical compounds present that may result in the discovery of some novel effective compounds which may form the template of new generation drugs curing a large array of diseases. During the course of the ITK documentation programme of Panchet Soil Conservation Division of Bankura district, West Bengal we came across various noble information about non–conventional medicinal plants from the tribal medicinal healer amongst which Ampelocissus latifolia (Roxb.) Planch [Vitis latifolia Roxb. (Vitaceae)] needed special mention. The primary information from Tribal healer on tuberous root indicates its use in severe chronic hair loss and hair loss in patches. This information was cross verified by other medicine man residing in four different ethnic communities. An initial literature search provided many medicinal uses of this plant mostly on aerial parts as well as on roots. Few researches have already been conducted to provide evidence against its usefulness in different ailments. Therefore, the present paper deals with the documentation of non- conventional medicinal uses found in this study as well as in earlier study along with the chemical analysis of the tuberous root of the plant. Chemical analysis is needed to throw light on the phytochemical properties of the tuberous root. Recently, Theng and Korpenwar (2015) analyzed the species phytochemically to elucidate the phytochemical characteristics of the tuberous root of the germplasm collected from Wasali forest Abstract: Traditional uses and phytochemical properties of the tuberous root of Ampelocissus latifolia (Roxb.) Planch (=Vitis latifolia Roxb.) (Vitaceae) collected from Taldangra, Panchet Soil Conservation Division, Bakura, West Bengal through GC-MS technique is reported. The presence of Hexadecanoic acid, β-sitosterol, etc. are of significant findings. The effectiveness of the plant against various important ailments including heart diseases and hypercholesterolemia is advocated. The superior quality of the Bankura germplasm over the Maharastra one is also noted.