For each plant part, 25 g of the chaff was boiled for 5 min in 250 ml of water followed by thorough mixing (shaker) and soaking for 12 h. The extract was filtered and freeze-dried to give 1/3 g of dry solid. Sequential organic extraction was also done by soaking the plant chaff for 48 h, using solvents of increasing polarity (hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, methanol). The solvent was removed under reduced pressure at 40 C and the residue was dried under vacuum over anhydrous silica gel to give a dry solid or paste