Abstract

PHYTOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF IRON OXIDE NANOPARTICLE USING PLECTRANTHUS AMBOINICUS (LOUR) SPRENG

*D. Jessy and M. Kalaiselvi

ABSTRACT

There is an increasing commercial demand for nanoparticles due to their wide applicability in various areas such as electronics, catalysis, chemistry, energy, and medicine. The traditional herbal medicine involves the use of various different plant extracts. The major use of herbal medicines is for health promotion and therapy for chronic, as opposed to life-threatening, conditions. However, usage of traditional remedies increases when conventional medicine is ineffective in the treatment of disease, such as in advanced cancer and in the face of new infectious diseases. Phytochemicals are non essential nutrients derived from plants; most of them are physiologically active. Majority of the phytochemicals have been known to beer therapeutic activities like antibacterial, antioxidant, antifungal, anticancer and hepatoprotective. Plectranthus amboinicus is an important medicinal plant with various pharmacological properties. The present work is an attempt for the phytochemical screening of different solvent extracts prepared from the leaves of P. amboinicus and characterization of iron oxide nanoparticles from the extract of P. amboinicus leaves. The preliminary phytochemical analysis confirmed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, saponins, carbohydrates, steroids, glycosides, phenols, proteins and amino acids. Photochemical analysis was carried out according to standard procedures. The resulting biosynthesized iron oxide nanoparticles were characterized by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis).

Keywords: Phytochemicals, Plectranthus amboinicus, Herbal medicine, Bioactive constituents.