Abstract

PHYTOCHMICAL STUDIES ON THE MEDICINAL HERB CATHARANTHUS PUSILLUS

Anju Chandran and Oommen P. Saj*

Abstract

Catharanthus pusillus (Murray) G. Don of the family Apocynaceae, is a common weed growing widely in various parts of Kerala. It is used as one of the important drug in traditional system of medicine to treat various ailments. A few studies showed the extract possess anticancerous and pain relieving properties. Hence the present study is concentrated on the preliminary phytochemical analysis, anticancerous, antioxidant, antimicrobial and anthelmintic activity of this.All the phytochemicals of whole plant of Catharanthus pusillus was extracted using the polar solvent methanol. Phytochemical analysis of whole plant extract showed the presence of phytochemical compounds of alkaloids, tannins, phenol, flavonoids, steroids, carbohydrate and proteins. From the methanol extract, 15 compounds were analyzed by most HPLC and 37 compounds were analyzed by GC-MS.Various kinds of terpenoids viz. mono, di and sesquiterpenoids and phenolic compounds are the major classes of phytochemicals detected.

Keywords: Catharanthus pusillus, Apocynaceae, Phytoconstituents, GC-MS,HPLC.