Phytochemical and pharmacognostic studies on some selected medicinal plants of Marathwada Maharashtra

Abstract

The rustics of Marathwada district are good at knowledge of herbal wealth and newlinerelated vegetation in the immediate vicinity. The rural communities have staunch newlineconfidence in ethnomedicine. newlinePlant medicines are alternative choice to modern synthetic drugs, having newlineminimum side effects and are supposed to be safe. The use the plant parts in the form newlineof paste, juice, decoction, powder; infusion etc. used to cure various diseases. newlineHowever, the present medicinal methods do not agree the potential of phytomedicine newlineunless this wisdom is experimentally accepted. newlineThe standardization of natural product is an integral part of pharmacology. It newlinecan be done through pharmacognosy. Pharmacognosy is a simple and reliable tool, by newlinewhich complete information of the crude drug can be obtained. It helps in newlineidentification and authentication of the plant material and quality of herbal medicine. newlineCurative properties of medicinal plants are mainly due to the presence of newlinevarious chemical compounds i.e. secondary metabolites like alkaloids, flavonoids, newlinesaponins, tannins, carbohydrates terpenoids and amino acids etc. newlineThe search for medicines to cure diseases began from long before when newlinepeople were aware of existance of microbes. The research of new plant based natural newlineproducts is on the basis of their ethno medicinal uses. In the present study during newlineethno botanical exploration, it was noticed that the rustics were using members of newlineapocyanaceae, sapindaceae, asclepidaceae and meliaceae as medicine and vegetable. newlineTherefore, it was decided to screen the plant phytochemicals and to assess their newlineantimicrobial efficacy. Taking into consideration the phytomedicinal importance five newlineplants were selected for the study. The plants are Pergularia daemia, Cascabela newlinethevetia, Wrightia tinctoria, Cardiospermum halicacabum and Soymida febrifuga. newlineObjective of the study: newlinei) Collections of plants ii) Phamacognostic study iii). Phytochemical screening newlinev) High performance liquid chromatogra