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197
ISSN: 2231-024X (Online)
Bioscience Discovery 3(2): 197-196, June 2012 ISSN: 2229-3469 (Print)
PHYTOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF LEONOTIS NEPETIFOLIA (L.) R. BR., A WILD MEDICINAL
PLANT OF LAMIACEAE
Syed Imran, S. S. Suradkar and D. K. Koche
Department of Botany, Shri Shivaji College, Akola (MS) India
imranbot@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Leonotis nepetifolia (L.) R. Br., is one of the wild members of family Lamiaceae. The plant is known
for its anti-cold, anti- cough, anti-inflamatory and anti-diarrheal properties since ages and being
used by local tribal communities as ethnomedicine. The present study is an attempt to investigate
the preliminary phytochemical composition of this plant. The result reveals the presence of
bioactive constituents comprising alkaloids, flavonoids, phenolics, tannins, glycosides, steroids and
saponins in different solvents. The presence of these phytochemicals can be correlated with the
medicinal potential of this plant.
Key Words: Leonotis nepetifolia, phytochemical composition, ethnomedicine.
INTRODUCTION
Leonotis nepetifolia (L.) R. Br., is a wild
herbaceous plant belonging to mint family (Family-
Lamiaceae). It generally grows in patches along
roadside or barren unused agriculture waste land
during rainy season. The mature plant attains the
height up to 2 meter. The orange yellow coroneted
verticilaster inflorescence and distinct plant odor
are amongst the unique characters of this plant.
The plant is being used by the local peoples
and tribal of Maharashtra as ethno medicine on
various ailments. The infusion of leaves is
traditionally being used to cure the stomach pain of
the children and also to cure cough and cold by
tribals of Melghat (MS) India. This plant is also
being used for its anti-inflammatory, anti-diarrheal
properties by various communities in Indian
subcontinent and also across the world. The
present study was designed to evaluate the
fundamental phytochemical constituents of this
wild medicinal plant.
MATERIAL AND MATHODS
The plant material was collected from
agriculture waste-land of Dr. PDKV agriculture
campus, Akola. Plant was identified taxonomically
by local taxonomist and with the help of flora of
Marathwada (Naik, 1986). The voucher specimen of
plant is deposited in the herbarium of Department
of Botany Shivaji College, Akola.
Extraction: The leaves of the plants were washed
thoroughly and dried in shade. The shade dried
leaves are then powdered and the powder is used
for further phytochemical analysis. The powder was
then subjected to soxhlet extraction with different
solvents (petroleum ether, benzene, acetone,
chloroform, methanol and water) according to their
increasing polarity. Each time before extracting
with the new solvent, the powder material was
dried in air oven below 500C. The final extract of
each solvent was use to analyze for the presence of
different phytochemical constituents (Harborne,
1973). The methods employed for the
quantification of various phytochemicals are
described below-
Alkaloid: 5g of the sample was taken in 250 ml of
20% acetic acid in ethanol and kept for 4hrs. This
was filtered and extract was concentrated using the
water bath until the volume reduce to one fourth
of the original volume. Then concentrated NH4OH
was added drop wise to the extract until the
precipitation was complete. The whole solution
was allowed to settle and the precipitation was
collected by filtration and weighed (Harborne,
1973; Obadoni and Ochuko, 2001).
Tannin: 500mg of the sample was weight into
100ml plastic bottle, 50ml of distilled water was
added and shaken for 1h in a mechanical shaker.
This was filtered into a 50ml volumetric flask and
made up to the mark. Then 5ml of the filtrate was
pipette out into a tube and mixed with 3ml of 0.1M
FeCl3 in 0.1N HCl and 0.008 M potassium
ferrocynide.
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ISSN: 2231-024X (Online)
Syed Imran et al.,
The absorbance was measured with
spectrophotometer at 120nm wavelength, within
10mins. A blank sample without plant extract was
prepared and absorbance was recorded at the
same wavelength. A standard was prepared using
tannic acid to get 100 ppm and measured the
absorbance (Van-Burden and Robinson, 1981).
Phenols: The fat free sample was boiled with 50ml
of ether for 15mins. 5ml of extract was pipette into
a 50ml of flask, and then 10ml of distilled water
was added. 2ml of ammonium hydroxide solution
and 5 ml of concentrate amyl alcohol were also
added. The sample was made up to the mark and
left to react for 30 min. The absorbance of solution
was recorded using spectrophotometer at 505nm
(Harborne, 1973; Obadoni and Ochuko, 2001).
Flavonoid: 10 g of plant sample was extracted
repeatedly with 100ml of 80% aqueous methanol at
room temperature. The whole solution was filtered
through whatman filter paper no.42 (125mm). The
filter was later transfer to a crucible and
evaporated to dryness over a water bath and
weighted (Boham and Kocipai, 1994).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The extraction of the leaf powder was done in five
different solvents viz., petroleum ether,
chloroform, acetone, methanol and water. The
color of petroleum ether extract was light green,
chloroform extract was creamy, acetone extract
was yellowish green, methanolic extract was light
green while water extract was yellowish creamy
(table-1).
Tabel-1: Successive solvent extraction of shade dried leaves of L. nepetifolia
Solvent system
Color of extract
Petroleum ether
Light green
Chloroform
Creamy
Acetone
Yellowish green
Methanol
Light green
Aqueous
Yellowish-creamy
Table- 2: Qualitative chemical examination of various extracts
Phytochemicals
PE
Ch
Ac
Me
W
Alkaloids
-
+
-
-
+
Phenolics
-
+
-
+
+
Glycosides
-
+
-
+
-
Flavonoids
-
+
-
+
+
Tannins
+
-
-
-
-
Steroids
+
-
+
-
-
Saponins
+
-
-
-
+
PE= Petroleum ether, Ch= Chloroform, Ac= Acetone, Me= Methanol, W= Water
Table 3: Quantification of major phytochemicals from leaves of L. nepetifolia
Phytochemicals
Quantity (mg/100g dry wt)
Alkaloid
1.40 ± 0.12
Flavonoids
1.47± 0.11
Phenols
1.20± 0.21
Tannin
0.11±0.81
The results are average of triplicate estimation ± standard error.
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ISSN: 2231-024X (Online)
Bioscience Discovery 3(2): 197-196, June 2012 ISSN: 2229-3469 (Print)
The preliminary phytochemical analysis showed
presence of alkaloid, phenolic, flavonoids, tannins,
steroids, glycosides and saponins. However, all
these chemicals were not extractable in one
solvent. Alkaloids, phenolic, flavonoids and
glycosides were present in chloroform extract;
tannins, steroids and saponins were found in
petroleum ether extract; phenols, flavonoids and
glycosides were present in methanolic extract;
alkaloids, phenolic, flavonoids and saponins were
found in aqueous extract while acetone extract
showed presence of only steroids (table-2). The
quantitative analysis indicates that the plant
possesses significant level of alkaloids, phenolic,
flavonoids and tannins (table-3).
The availability of specific phytochemicals
in plant gives it specific medicinal properties.
Therefore, presence of above phytochemicals in L.
nepatifolia can be correlated with its medicinal
potential. Similar reports on phytochemical
composition of various medicinal plants were made
earlier by many workers (Chopra et al., 1956; Del-
Rio et al., 1997; Obadoni and Ochuko, 2001; Okwu,
2001, 2004 and Koche et al., 2010). However, it is
very essential to isolate the bioactive fractions from
these major groups so that it can be used further in
designing specific drugs.
AKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors are grateful to UGC for financial
assistance.
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