Abstract

PHARMACOGNOSTICAL, PHYSICO-CHEMICAL, PHYTOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS AND ANTICANCER SCREENING OF CROTALARIA VERRUCOSA L.

Ramesh Kannan N.*, Agnel Arul John N. and Natarajan E.

ABSTRACT

Objective: To establish the standardization parameters for pharmacognostic, physico-chemical, phytochemical and evaluation of anticancer activity of Crotalaria verrucosa L, belonging to family Fabaceae, an important plant in the Indian system of medicine. Methods: Macroscopical, microscopical, physic-chemical evaluations, florescence analysis, preliminary phytochemical analysis, quantification of phytoconstituents of C. verrucosa were investigated and aqueous and ethanolic extracts of C. verrucosa were subjected for screening of anticancer potentials against Ehrlich Ascites Carcinoma using in-vitro methods. Results: Chemo-microscopy revealed the presence of lignin, starch grains and calcium oxalate crystals. The different fluorescent light shades were obtained under short and long UV light for both powder as well as the extracts of the leaves. Physico- chemical evaluation used to determine numerical standards showed a result with total ash (6.30±0.27) % w/w, water soluble ash (4.4±0.37) % w/w, acid insoluble ash (1.80±0.42) % w/w, loss on drying (1.08±0.11) % w/w, ethanol soluble extractive (08.7±0.46) % w/w and water soluble extractive (24.6±1.12) % w/w. Behavior characteristics of the leaves powder and various extracts of C. verrucosa showed presence of Terpenoids, Flavones, Steroids, Alkaloids, Phenol, Tannin, Saponin, and Glycosides. The quantification of the few secondary metabolites in aqueous and ethanol extracts was estimated. In vitro cytotoxic effect was examined using MTT Assay, the aqueous extract showed 77.61 ± 0.89% while ethanolic extracts inhibits 84.09 ± 1.57% against EAC cell lines. Conclusions: The results from pharmacognostic, physic-chemical, phytochemical analysis and anticancer investigations of C. verrucosa are suggested that ethanol extracts of C. verrucosa is very useful towards discovering a new drug against cancer cells.

Keywords: Crotalaria verrucosa L; Pharmacognostical study; Phytochemical analysis; MTT; Cytotoxicity.