Vajira P. Bulugahapitiya is a Senior Professor in Chemistry, attached to the Department of Chemistry, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka. She has obtained her PhD from University of Fribourg, Switzerland in Organic Chemistry. She is a pioneering researcher in the field of Natural Product Chemistry and the most attended research work during past twenty years includes, exploration of Sri Lankan flora for discovery of novel biological active compounds, development of functional foods and nutraceuticals from plants to be used acting against non-communicable diseases, exploration of Sri Lankan underutilized and wild fruits to promote them as healthier and economic fruits, glycemic activity and nutritional aspects of traditional and improved rice varieties of Sri Lanka, and biotransformation of natural compounds to introduce different biological functions etc. She has been authored for more than 80 publications including peer reviewed journal publications and conference presentations, presently her research team comprised of eight postgraduate students and many local and foreign collaborators. In addition to her research career, she had been served as the Head of the Department of Chemistry of University of Ruhuna during 2013- 2019 and currently she is serving as the Director of Distance & Continuing Education Unit of University of Ruhuna.
Department of Chemistry, University of Ruhuna, Matara 81000, Sri Lanka
Shanthirasekaram Kokilananthan is a second-year doctoral student in Natural Product Chemistry at the University of Ruhuna in Sri Lanka, where he is supervised by Prof. Vajira P. Bulugahapitiya. He is working "Chemical composition, proximate composition, and antioxidant properties of Psidium guajava (Guava), Garcinia gummi-gutta (Garcinia), and Eryngium foetidum (Long coriander) leaves. He has been graduated with a B.Sc (Chemistry) from the South Eastern University of Sri Lanka and worked as a teaching assistant in the Department of Chemistry at the same institution. He is currently employed as a Research Assistant at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka. So far he has published one jouranl article and three conference proceedings in the feild of Natural Product Chemistry.
Department of Chemistry, University of Ruhuna, Matara 81000, Sri Lanka
Dr. Harshi Manawadu is currently affiliated to Department of Chemistry, University of Ruhuna Sri Lanka. She received her Bachelors(honors) degree in Chemistry from University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She pursued her post graduate studies at Kansas State University, Kansas, USA and graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry in year 2014. During the doctoral studies she worked on developing novel anti-cancer drug formulations using nanomaterials in biomedical applications. Upon returning to Sri Lanka she has started working on natural products-based research, which focuses on unraveling the vast array of potential biomolecules present in natural flora and fauna that would be beneficial in numerous medical and technological applications.
Department of Chemistry, University of Ruhuna, Matara 81000, Sri Lanka
He completed his PhD in Biophysical Chemistry in 2008. He did his research on protein structures and protein structural modelling for his PhD. Currently he works as a Senior Lecturer, Department of Chemistry, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka. He has more than 20 years of teaching experience for undergraduates and has conducted more than 10 undergraduate research projects. He has about 20 research publications (articles and abstracts) with 143 Google Scholar citations.
Psidium guajava L. (Myrtaceae), also known as guava, is a medicinal tree native to tropical America that has been introduced and is widely available in many countries. Almost all plant parts of P. guajava have a long history of being used to treat a variety of ailments, in addition to applications as foods. Guava leaves are used as both medicine and food purposes, and there are numerous scientific reports on their medicinal uses, chemical composition and pharmacological properties. Cancer, blood pressure, diarrhea, bowel irregularities, diabetes, cough, cold, constipation, dysentery, scurvy, weight loss, improves skins tonicity are some of the diseases treated with guava leaves. Polyphenols, flavonoids, saponins, tannins, terpenoids, glycosides, flavones, cardiac glycosides, cardenolides, phlobatanins, steroids and other classes of bioactive compounds have been identified from the leaves. The primary chemical constituents of guava leaves are phenolic compounds, iso-flavonoids, gallic acid, catechin, quercetin, epicathechin, rutin, naringenin, kaempferol, caryophyllene oxide, p-selinene etc. Several studies have demonstrated its pharmacological activities including antioxidant, antimicrobial, antidiabetic, antitumor, anticancer, antidiarrheal, healing, cytotoxic, hepatoprotective, anti-inflammatory, antimalarial/ anti-plasmodial, dental plaque, antiglycative and many more. This review is aimed on compiling all the literature reported on pharmacological activities and phytochemical compositions of guava leaves as a support to the scientific community for further studies and to provide scientific data to validate its traditional uses.
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