The Phytochemical and Thin Layer Chromatograhy Profile of Ethnomedcinal Plant Helicia Nilagirica (Bedd)

The plants have provided valuable medicines in the form of secondary metabolites synthesized by them for various purposes. The present study deals with the phytochemical profiling of Helicia nilagrica using various phytochemical procedures and thin layer chromatography. The mature non-infected stem bark of Helicia nilagirica was collected, dried, powdered and subjected to sequential extraction with increasing polarity using petroleum ether, chloroform, ethanol and distilled water. The different extracts were cooled and evaporated to dryness with rotary evaporator. The phytochemical analyses were carried out on chloroform, ethanol and aqueous extracts. The chloroform extract revealed the presence of flavonoids, tannins, terpenoids, cardiac glycosides, whereas alkaloids, saponins and carbohydrates were completely absent. Similarly, the ethanol extract contained flavonoids, tannins, phenols and cardiac glycosides. The aqueous extract showed the presence of saponins, tannins, cardiac glycosides and carbohydrates. The TLC profile also showed the presence of different phytochemicals in the different extracts as indicated by different Rf values using various solvent systems.