Orchidaceae, the second largest plant family, are the most diverse and evolved among the angiosperms which constitute approximately 40% of monocot taxa. Recent taxonomic studies suggest that the varietal number of orchids with distinct names is very close to a total of 19,000, comprising 800 genera and 25,000 species (Lahaye et al., 2008). Orchids consist primarily of epiphytes with the greatest diversity occurring in tropical and subtropical regions. India has a rich heritage of wild orchids in the world. Nearly 1,600 species are estimated to be found in India, which constitutes about 10% of the world's orchid flora. High humidity and low temperatures accompanied by good rainfall make Assam, Manipur and Western Ghat regions of the country the major orchid hotspots. Orchids are undoubtedly the ornamental elite group due to their intricate and puzzling floral features of exquisite beauty. The flowers include two whorls of petaloid organs called tepals that surround the reproductive organs of the plant. Morphological characteristics such as column size and shape, presence of appendages, conformation, position and number of anthers, as well as characteristics of pollinia and other flower structures, help us identify Species-specific variations. Bulbophyllum is the largest genus with 2,000 species, closely followed by Epidendrum with 1,500 species and Dendrobium with 1,400 species. Dendrobium is the third largest genus of the orchid family, characterized by a wide geographic distribution with enormous diversity in its growth habits. It also exhibits a unique ability to produce large numbers of interspecific floral hybrids possessing high commercial demand. The habitat of Dendrobium extends from India west to Japan. Compounds present in Dendrobium plants include a group of sesquiterpene alkaloids and phenols (Okomoto et al., 1966; Elander et al., 1973; Tang and Eisenbrand, 1992). Moscatiline (Fig. 1) is a bibenzylphenol derived from Dendrobium species. It is also known as dendropenol, phenol, 4-(2-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)ethyl)-2,6-dimethoxy-. In 1987, moscatilin was first extracted from Dendrobium moscatum (Mazumdar and Sen, 1987), and then isolated from several other species such as Dendrobium loddigesii (Chen et al., 1994), Dendrobium amoenum (Mazumdar et al., 1999). ), Dendrobium nobile (Miyazawa et al., 1999), Dendrobium densiflorum (Fan et al., 2001), Cymbidium aloifolium (Juneja et al., 1987) and Agrostophyllum khasiyanum (Mazumdar et al., 1996). Studies have proven the anticancer activity of moscatiline in stomach and lung cancer cell lines (Ho et al.., 2003).