Abstract

PHYTOCHEMICAL STUDIES AND ANTHELMINTIC ACTIVITY OF THE LEAF EXTRACT OF PITHECOLOBIUM DULCE, BENTH.

Safna Nazar N and Oommen P. Saj*

ABSTRACT

Pithecolobium dulce, Benth is an evergreen tree widely distributed in the greater part of India. The present study was aimed to reveal anthelmintic, antioxidant activity and identification and quantification of crude phyochemical constituents present in the plant. Plant material was collected and leaves were used to make the extracts. The polar solvent methanol was used to make extracts by the distillation method using soxhlet apparatus. The shade dried leaves was powered and used to obtain extract after continuous heating of 8 hours at boiling point of 65ºC. The extract was concentrated to dryness and the residue were transferred to preweighed bottle and stored for further studies. Initial part of the study was focus on the phytochemical screening of methanolic leaf extract that revealed the presence of reducing sugar, glycosides, flavanoids, tannins, terpenoids, alkaloids, coumarins and steroids where as saponins showed negative results. Moisture content of Pithecolobium dulce Benth. was determined and the result revealed the presence of 26.17 % moisture content. The result revealed various concentration of biochemicals present in the plant tissue. Result showed that the least content was flavanoid which was only about 0.000037 mg/g. Protein was present in higher amount, about 10.54 mg/g. P. dulce plant was found to be a rich source of proteins and fattyacids. On HPLC analysis 13 compounds were detected of which the major constituent was found to be gallic acid, a phenolic compound. Another compound, Tridecanoate, a saturated fatty acid was also found in large quantity. The presence of tridecanoate and gallic acid as major compounds may be the reason for its prominent biological activities like antioxidative and anthelmintic potentials.

Keywords: Pithocolobium dulce, HPLC, anthelmintic, antioxidant, phytochemical studies.