Abstract

EVALUATION OF PHYTOCHEMICAL QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF SPHENOCLEA ZEYLANICA

J. Gowri*, P.Arockia Sahayaraj, A. Seik Dawood and A. Angelin Prema

ABSTRACT

Medicinal plants play an important role in drug development for various diseases. This attribute of medicinal plants are due to the phytochemicals present in them. Plant synthesize a wide range of chemical compounds which are classified based on their chemical class, biosynthetic origin and functional groups into primary and secondary metabolites. Secondary metabolites are synthesized during secondary metabolism of plants. The most important secondary metabolites are alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids, phenols, steroids, phloblatannins, saponin and cardiac glycosides. In the present study, an attempt was made to screen the phytochemicals present in the plant Sphenoclea zeylanica. Sphenoclea is a genus of succulent erect annual herbs. They occur in damp habitats throughout the tropics. So far, no study has been made regarding the phytochemical constituents of this plant. In this present study, the leaf, stem and flower extracts were analyzed in four different solvents. It was found that significant phytochemicals such as flavonoids, alkaloids, steroids etc were present in different solvents. Quantitative analysis showed that phenols were the most abundant phytochemical in the methanol extract of Sphenoclea zeylanica. Thus, the plant is considered to be of much therapeutic value.

Keywords: Sphenoclea zeylanica, phytochemical screening, phenols.