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
65ÂșC. 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.
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