2018, Vol. 6, Issue 4, Part C

author(s)
Chhavi Singla and Mohammed Ali

abstract
Dandruff is a skin disorder caused by a fungus Malassezia furfur. There are some medicinal plants and essential oils which possess antidandruff properties. The stem bark and young shoots of Betula cylindrostachys Lindley (Betulaceae) are used as an anti-inflammatory, analgesic, astringent, rubefacient, tonic and to treat bladder infections, neuralgia, rheumatism skin diseases. The air-dried leaf powder was extracted exhaustively with methanol in a Soxhlet apparatus. The concentrated methanolic extract was dissolved in 95% aqueous methanol and fractionated by partitioning the solution with petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate and n-butanol. The chloroform fraction exhibited marked antidandruff activity against the growth of Malassezia furfur. It was adsorbed on silica gel (60-120 mesh) for the preparation of a slurry. The dried slurry was loaded over silica gel columns. The column was eluted with petroleum ether, chloroform and methanol, successively, in order of increasing polarity to isolate 1-heptadecanol (1), behenyl alcohol (1-docosanol, 2), 1-tricosanol (3), lignoceric acid (n- tetracosanoic acid, 4) and 1-nonacosanol (5). Their structures were established on the basis of spectral data analysis and chemical reactions.