PHYTOCHEMISTRY PHARMACOGNOSY AND ANTIMICROBIAL STUDY OF SELECTED MEDICINAL PLANTS OF FAMILY CUCURBITACEAE

Abstract

The rustics of Parbhani 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 alternating choice to modern synthetic drugs, having newlineminimum side effects and are supposed to be safe. The use the plant parts in form newlinepaste, juice, decoction, powder; infusion etc. used to cure various diseases. However, newlinethe present medicinal methods do not agree the potential of phytomedicine unless this newlinewisdom is experimentally assessed. 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, glycosides, newlineflavonoids, saponins, tannins, carbohydrates and essential oils etc. newlineThe search for agent to cure diseases began long before people were aware of newlineexistence of microbes. The research of new plant based natural products is on the newlinebasis of their ethno medicinal uses. In the present study during ethno botanical newlineexploration, it was noticed that the rustics were using members of Cucurbitaceae as newlinemedicine 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 Coccinia grandis, Lagenaria newlinesiceraria, Trichosanthes tricuspidata, Diplocyclos palmatus and Cucumis setosus. newlineObjective of the study: newlinei). Collections of plants ii). Phamacognostic study iii). phytochemical screening newlineiv). Thin layer chromatography v). High performance liquid chromatography newlinevi). Antimicrobial assay of selected plants.