Preliminary Phytochemical Screening of Six Medicinal Plants Used in Traditional Medicine

Objective: Preliminary screening of phytochemicals is a valuable step, in the detection of the bioactive principles present in medicinal plants and subsequently may lead to drug discovery and development. In the present study, chief phytoconstituents of the six selected medicinal plants of different families were identified in order to relate their presence with bioactivities of the plants. Methods: Screening of six selected medicinal plants was performed for the presence of tannins, flavonoids, terpenoids, saponins, steroids, phlobatannins, carbohydrates, glycosides, coumarins, alkaloids, proteins, emodins, anthraquinones, anthocyanins and leucoanthocyanins using standard methods. Results: All the selected medicinal plants were found to contain tannins and flavonoids. Moreover, terpenoids were also present in all the selected plants except P. dactylifera. except P. dactylifera. On the other hand, saponins and steroids were absent in all plants except S. chirata and phlobatannins were absent in all plants except R. sativus. In addition, carbohydrates, glycosides and coumarins were present in all the selected plants except P. dactylifera and R. sativus. Alkaloids were present in all the selected plants except F. religiosa, P. dactylifera and R. sativus. Proteins were present only in F. religiosa and S. chirata. Whereas emodins, anthraquinones, anthocyanins and leucoanthocyanins were absent in all the selected six plants. Conclusion: It is evident from the study that S. chirata is of highest therapeutic efficacy possessing majority of phytochemical classes of compounds and P. dactylifera is of lowest therapeutic potential due to the absence of majority of phytoconstituents.