Screening of Phytochemical Components of Leaf Extracts

Phytochemicals are chemicals of plant origin, produced through primary or secondary metabolism of plants. Phytochemicals have become of great interest owing to their diverse applications. In the study five plant sources available locally and abundantly were selected to screen phytochemicals available in their leaves for testing their anti-microbial property for textiles. Leaf extracts were prepared using 70% ethanol and distilled water. The extracts were assessed for the presence of various classes of phytochemicals by applying standard tests and also total phenolic content of each extract was estimated. Results revealed that all the extracts contained tannins and phenolic compounds significantly. Flavonoids were poorly present in Amla leaf extract and significantly in Babul leaf extract. Alkaloids and saponin were poorly present in all extracts except moderate presence in Amla leaf extract. Terpenoids were totally absent in all except Babul leaf extract. Ethanol extract of Amla leaf extract exhibited the highest Total Phenolic Content i.e. 156.79 mg/g of dry material followed by Babul leaf extract117.99 mg/g. Among distilled water extracts Babul leaf extract exhibited highest i.e. 106.05 mg/g followed by Amla leaf extract i.e. 100.27 mg/g.