Abstract

IDENTIFICATION OF PHYTOCHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS FROM TAMILNADIA ULIGINOSA (RETZ.) TIRVENG. & SASTRE (RUBIACEAE) FRUITS USING HPLC ANALYSIS.

Deepthy Mol M. J.*, Radhamany P. M. and Gayathridevi V.

ABSTRACT

Tamilnadia uliginosa (Retz.) Tirveng and sastre (Rubiaceae), known as Divine Jasmine, is one of the renowned medicinal plants used to treat large number of human ailments mentioned in Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani. The fruits are edible and eaten as vegetable. It is also diuretic, purgative, aphrodisiac and useful for the treatment of burning sensation, piles, sexual weakness and dysentery. Rural people in Wayanad district of Kerala are using fresh fruit of T. uliginosa for the treatment of dysentery and diarrhea, and also used for culinary purposes. But only stray reports on the phytochemical constituents of the fruits. Preliminary phytochemical screening of methanolic extract of fruit revealed the prescence of phenolic compounds in high amounts. Hence an attempt was made to identify its phytoconstituents of T.uliginosa fruit through HPLC analysis. The analysis revealed the presence of 15 compounds, most of them are phenolic compounds. Phenolic compounds having potential anticancer and antioxidant properties, hence the result clearly shows the potential phytotherapeutic value of this species.

Keywords: Tamilnadia uliginosa, phytochemical screning, HPLC, phenolic compounds.