Phytochemical and Pharmacological Investigation of some Indian Medicinal Plants in Standard Models

Abstract

Modern synthetic medicine approach is a very narrow approach which will give only symptomatic relief but do not cure the disease or disorder from its root. For thousands of years, natural products have been used in traditional medicine all over the world and predate the introduction of antibiotics and other modern drugs. So it is compulsory to investigate for native alternative drugs for the treatment of Diabetes, pain and inflammation and cancer. Plant materials which are being used as a traditional medicine for the treatment of diabetes are considered one of the good sources for a new drug or a lead to make a new drug. Plant extract or different folk plant preparations are being prescribed by the traditional clinicians and also accepted by the users for diabetes like for any other diseases in many countries especially in third world countries. The collected plant materials were identified and authenticated, then processed for successive extraction to obtain extracts. Phytochemical screening of the prepared extracts was conducted with various qualitative tests to identify the presence of chemical constituents. The tests were carried out as Sterols by Salkowaski test and Liebermann test ,Glycosides screened by b-naphthol test, Alkaloids tested by Dragendroff s test Triterpenoids by Libermann-Burchard test, for Flavonoids Shinoda test carried out, Naphthoquinones tested by Juglone test, Carotenoids by Carr-price reaction. Finally tannins were tested by Matchstick Test. The present study reveals that various extracts of pods of Caesalpinia pulcherrima and stem bark of Moringa oleifera contains various phytoconstituents such as flavonoids, alkaloids, phenolic compounds, sterols, triterpenoids, glycosides etc. As these compounds lead to pharmacological effects. From the observation it was found that methanolic extract of Caesalpinia pulcherrima and Moringa oleifera was good scavenger of DPPH radical as DPPH radical scavenging capability is extensively used as an index to estimate the antioxidant potential of medicinal plants.