Preliminary phytochemical analysis of leaf of Garcinia gummigutta from Western Ghats

Abstract

Preliminary phytochemical analysis of the secondary metabolites in the leaf of Garcinia gummi-gutta collected from various regions of Western Ghats was carried out. The location of these plants was tagged with the longitude and latitude co-ordinates on Google maps using i-touchmaps software on androidphone. G.gummi-gutta plants having broad leaves and narrow leaves were collected from Western Ghat regions of Kodagu, Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada and parts of Kerala. Data on the Ethnobotanical properties of G.gummi-gutta were collected from indigenous people and households practicing medicines for animals and humans in these regions. The presumptive compound bringing out the action in other plants is also reported to understand the correlation. The fluorescent characteristic features of leaf of G.gummigutta in various extracts were conducted under UV light at 366nm. The leaf extracts of both broad and narrow types were prepared with distilled water, methanol, ethanol, acetone, chloroform, di-ethylether, petroleum ether and hexane. Qualitative analysis of phytochemicals in these extract were analysed. The investigation revealed that the leaf of G.gummi- gutta does contain medicinally active phytochemicals. The preliminary qualitative chemical tests showed that leaves collected from Western Ghats regions of Kodagu and Kerala have high content of alkaloids, tannins, phenolic flavonoids, flavonoids, carbohydrates and proteins. This justifies that environmental features do have variation in phytochemical content accumulation in plants. Steroids, terpenoids, phlobatannin and Cardiac glycosides were found in small quantities. Saponins, anthraquinones and anthocyanides were absent. This study provides a location key and scientific detail to investigate the phytochemicals in the leaf of G.gummi-gutta. The type of extraction solvents used in the investigation will help researchers decide on solvent compositions for further work on the above mentioned phytochemicals. The study also justifies the need for further research work on the leaf of Garcinia gummi-gutta. Keywords: