Phytochemical Screening of Gum Extracted from Curcuma Amada

The aim of the present study is the phytochemical screening of gum of Curcuma amada (mango ginger). Natural gums are economic, easily available and found useful as tablet binder. The phytochemical properties of a gum obtained from the rhizomes of Curcuma amada were characterized by various test including test for Steroids, tannins, flavanoids, amino acids, carbohydrates and glycosides. All of the test except for carbohydrates were negative confirms the presence of gum. INTRODUCTION: As the man learned to grow and got civilized, he started plasticizing much herbal medicine by trial or error. The human beings have always turned to plants for food, shelter, clothing, weapons and healing. In the past 1 , when pain, injury and disease struck to traditional people or ancient civilization, they depended greatly on local flora and fauna for their survival. Even through synthetic medicine or polymer has taken a front seat during 1920-1930 but 25 to 30 percent of modern drugs or polymer are derived from some parts of higher plants e.g. Cinchona, Quinine, Turmeric etc. Plants have provided mankind a large variety of potent drugs to alleviate suffering from diseases. In spite of spectacular advances in synthetic drugs in recent years, some of medicinally drugs and pharmaceutical used additive of plant origin have still retained their importance. QUICK RESPONSE CODE DOI: 10.13040/IJPSR.0975-8232.IJP.2(8).419-25 Article can be accessed online on: www.ijpjournal.com DOI link: http://dx.doi.org/10.13040/IJPSR.0975-8232.IJP.2(8).419-25 Mainly 2 plant and animal species utilized for traditional medicines are sourced from the wild, a situation highlighted by the results of the surveys conducted for this study; increasing demand for traditional medicine has important implications for the conservation of the many species of flora and fauna upon which traditional remedies are largely based. While some medicinal species are used whole, in others particular parts are used for their different medicinal properties. The majority are traded and used in their raw and dried forms. A wide range of medicinal plant is used for extract the raw drugs and possess varies medicinal properties. Different parts are including roots, stem, fruit, bark, flower, rhizomes and leave, bark, gum or mucilage etc. substances extracted for medicinal purposes. These extracted substances are often used in large quantities in pharmaceutical industry. Gums are used for the formulation of ocular jells, topical formulation and cosmetics products. Gums 3 are considered to be pathological products formed following injury to the plant or owing to unfavorable conditions, such as drought, by a breakdown of cell walls while, mucilage is generally normal products of metabolism, formed