Abstract
Preliminary screening of phytochemicals is a valuable step in the detection of bioactive principles present in medicinal plants, which subsequently may lead to drug discovery and development. In the present study, chief phytoconstituents of the Momordica cymbalaria were identified. Preliminary screening of phytochemicals was done by using three extraction methods: maceration, soxhlation and reflux with hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol. All the nine extracts showed the presence of flavonoids, phenols, steroids and terpenoids that were obtained by the three extraction methods. The present work also attempted to optimize the HPTLC fingerprint profiles of secondary metabolites in hexane, ethyl acetate and methanolic fruit extracts of M. cymabalaria. Soxhlated methanolic fruit extract was rich in secondary compounds and exhibited more biological activity than the other extracts. Hence future study is needed to isolate potential bioactive principle from fruit extract of M. cymbalaria.
Highlights
The plant fruit material was shade dried, powdered and stored in desiccators till further use. These powders were subjected to maceration, soxhlet extraction and reflux solvent extraction process with hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol separately to check the presence of thermolabile and thermostable components in M. cymbalaria as they may be lost at elevated temperature
Quinones were present in hexane and ethyl acetate of maceration, hexane extract of soxhalation and hexane and methanol extracts of reflux
The total phenolic content was more in soxhlated methanolic extract, total flavonoids were more in methanol extracts of both maceration and soxhalation
Summary
Medicinal plants play a crucial role for the treatment of various disease conditions, such as diabetes and malaria (Fola, 1993). The availability and relatively cheaper cost of medicinal plants, make them more attractive as therapeutic agents when compared to ‘modern’ medicines (Agbor and Ngogang, 2005; Agbor et al, 2005a). The medicinal value of plants is due to the presence of some chemical substances known as phytochemicals that produce a definite physiological action on the human body. Knowledge of the chemical constituents of the plant is essential, for the discovery of therapeutic agents, and such information may be of value as precursors for the synthesis of complex chemical substances (Ilango et al, 2012). Medicinal plants are used as herbal preparations produced by subjecting plant materials to various extraction procedures such as extraction, fractionation, purification, concentration or other physical or biological processes which may be produced for immediate consumption or as a basis for herbal products (Sofowora et al, 1996)
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