Phytochemical Survey of Malaysian Plants Preliminary Chemical and Pharmacological Screening

Abstract

Many Malaysian plants that have been used in medicine by the local people are described in Burkill's “Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula.”1) Further information on Malaysian medicinal and poisonous plants can be found in “Malay Poisons and Charm Cures,”2) “On Chinese Medicine,”3) “Malay Village Medicine,”4) and “The Medical Book of Malayan Medicine.”5) Douglas and Kiang,6) Kiang, et al.7) and Amarasingham, et al.8) have recently reported the results of screening Malayan plants for the presence of alkaloids, while Lin9) has investigated the nature of certain Malaysian dart poisons. In this paper we report the results of preliminary pharmacological tests carried out on the crude extracts of a number of Malayan and Singapore plants comprising 89 species, 82 genera and 40 families. The extracts were tested for antimicrobial activity, toxicity, and antitumor activity. We have also taken the opportunity of carrying out spot tests for the presence of alkaloids, phenolic substances, amino acids and peptides, reducing sugars, and acidic and basic substances. These tests were made after the extracts had been subjected to filter paper or thin-layer chromatography. The experimental methods are described below and the results are summarised in Table I. © 1965, The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan. All rights reserved.