Original Articles
Hari Om Saxena*, Anjana Soni,
Abstract
Phytochemicals are the naturally occurring compounds present in all plant parts which together with nutrients and fibres provide protection to plants and humans against diseases. Development of rapid and accurate methods of screening of medicinal plants for particular chemicals has aided phytochemical analysis enormously. In this paper, extracts of leaves, stem and roots of Uraria picta in various solvents have been screened for qualitative determination of phytochemical constituents i.e. secondary metabolites (alkaloids, flavonoids, steroids, terpenoids, phenols, saponins tannins and cardiac glycosides). Along with this, macro elements (Na, K, Ca, Mg, P) which are essential for maintaining the animal body were also determined quantitatively in leaves (Na – 0.04%, K - 0.67%, Ca- 1.81%, Mg-0.21% and P- 0.04%), stem (Na- 0.04%, K-0.73%, Ca – 1.41%, Mg – 0.11% and P- 0.07%) and roots (Na-0.02%, K- 0.46%, Ca-0.82%, Mg- 0.13% and P- 0.05%) of the plant. Phytochemicals investigated are biologically active compounds to combat diseases and elements to maintain good health.