Abstract

PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING OF SESAMUM INDICUM SEED EXTRACT

*Rangarajan Narasimhan, Ambilly Mohan

ABSTRACT

Medicinal plants are the most important source of life saving drugs for the majority of world’s population. People of all continents have used hundreds to thousands of indigenous plants. Sesame (Sesamum indicum) is the most widely cultivated species for its nutritious seeds and oil. The objective of this study was to identify the compounds in the sesame plant that were subjected to screening. The crude methanol and hexane extracts of Sesamum indicum were subjected to preliminary screening. Chemical screening conducted on the extracts of the Sesamum indicum showed the presence of several secondary metabolites mainly, polyphenols, alkaloids, flavanoids, terpenoids, and glycosides. The chemical screening further showed the presence of various amino acids. The plant containing more of these metabolites stressing the need for further investigations using fractionated extracts and purified chemical components.

Keywords: Sesamum indicum; sesame; phytochemicals; polyphenols; phytosterols.