Phytochemical Screening of Ficus benjamina (Linn.) Fruit Extracts

Abstract

Ficus benjamina (Linn.) commonly called as weeping fig, is distributed throughout forests of eastern Himalayas of India, Fego, Travancore and Archipelago and China. It is useful in inflammation, syphilis, dysentery, erysipelas and as general tonic. Traditionally, fruit extract of Ficus benjamina has been used in skin disorders, inflammation, piles, leprosy, malaria, cancer, ulcer and as insect repellant. Detection, quantitative and qualitative determination of different classes of phyto-constituents present in any plant is considered important parameters which give an indication of the therapeutically active constituent(s) present in the plant. An extensive literature survey on Ficus benjamina showed that sporadic phytochemical reports are available. Therefore, it was considered worthwhile to perform phytochemical screening of various fruit extracts of Ficus benjamina which was not evaluated till date. Therefore, the present investigation was planned to investigate phytochemical screening of Ficus benjamina fruit extracts. Various extracts were prepared using successive Soxhlet extraction method. Solvents viz. petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate, ethanol and water in increasing polarity order were used to prepare extracts. Results of the present study showed that ethanol and ethyl acetate extract showed bioactive phytoconstituents like flavonoids, phenolic compounds and coumarins which could be responsible for various biological activities of Ficus benjamina.