Phytochemical Analysis of Methanolic Extracts of Leaves of Some Selected Medicinal Plants of Jorhat District, Assam, India

Medicinal plants have bioactive compounds which are used for curing of various human diseases and also play an important role in healing. Phytochemicals have two categories i. e., primary and secondary constituents. Primary constituents have chlorophyll, proteins sugar and amino acids. Secondary constituents contain terpenoids and alkaloids. Medicinal plants have antifungal, antibacterial and anti -inflammation activities. Phytochemical are the dependable sources for the treatment of different health problem. The present investigation deals with the phytochemical studies of leaves of diverse medicinal plants such as Oroxylum indicum, Litsea citrata, Carissa carandens, and Garcinia morella. Methanolic (90%) extracts of leaf powders have been screened for quantitative determination of different secondary metabolites like flavonoids, phenols and total flavonols etc. The highest amount of phenol was found in L. citrata (8.28± 0.15 mg of GAE/gm) while O. indicum exhibited the lowest amt of phenol content (2.05 ± 0.15 mg of GAE/gm). The flavonoids and total flavonol content also varied among the four plant species. Altogether the results reveal the presence of medicinally active constituents in the four plants studied. The phytochemical compounds identified in this study have earlier been proved to be bioactive. The presence of some of these compounds have been confirmed by previous workers to have medicinal as well as physiological activity and therefore could be said to be responsible for the efficacy of the leaves of the plants studied in treatment of different ailments. The plant extracts could therefore be seen as a potential source for useful drug. The continued traditional medicinal use of these plants is therefore encouraged while it is suggested that further work should be carried out to isolate, purify and possibly characterize the active constituents responsible for the activity of these plants.