Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum), excellent source of phytochemicals

Ocimum sanctum also known as Tulsi or Holybasil is an aromatic plant and it belongs to the family Lamiaceae. It is widely used as medicine to cure various ailments. The objective of the study was to analyse different phytochemical components of tulsi leaf. The dried powder of Tulsi (50g) was placed in the thimble of Soxhlet apparatus and the experiment was done separately for methanol, ethanol and distilled water. The percentage yield was 8%w/w,7%w/w, and 5%w/w respectively. The study reveals that various secondary metabolites such as carbohydrate, tannin, flavonoids, saponins, glycoside, terpenoid, fatty acids and phenol are present in tulsi leaf extract. From the quantitative analysis it was found that high amount of phenols are present in Tulsi leaf ranging from 1.6 to 7.6 percentages. Consequently the amount of alkaloid and flavonoids ranged from 0.91 to 1.28 and 1.56 to 2.24 percentages respectively. From the GC-MS analysis of methanolic extract three compounds were identified as major constituents viz., Eugenol , Benzene, 1, 2-dimethoxy- 4- (2- propenyl), α - Farnesene and Cyclohexane, 1, 2, 4- triethenyl. Thesephyto-chemicals are known to possess antiseptic, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antistress, immunomodulatory, hypoglycemic, hypotensive and antioxidant properties. Hence it is more beneficial to use tulsi asan herbal medicine as compare to chemically synthesized drug.