ISSN: 2578-4803
Medicinal Plants of North East India: Does the Answer Lies Within
Medicinal plants are the most common reservoir of life saving drugs for the world. They are still considered to be efficient in treating the diseases of mankind. India has a rich and diverse flora of flowering medicinal plants. The use of plants as medicines is practiced from ancient times to the recent days. The current study is aimed to find out the phytochemical content of 5 medicinal plants of NE India namely Mimosa pudica, Catharanthus roseus, Ocimum tenuiflorum, Centella asiastica, Tagetes erecta. It was found that steroids were present only in the leaves of Mimosa pudica and was not found in any other part of the five studied plants. Terpenoids were most commonly observed in the root part of the studied plants. The results for flavonoids were of mixed nature. Flavonoids were found to be positive by alkaline reagent test in most part of the studied plants. However flavonoids could not be detected in few parts of the selected plants by the other qualitative detection method known as the hydrogen sulphide test. There were mixed results for the presence of the phytochemicals such as tannins, glycosides and coumarins in various parts of the above studied plants. Similarly proteins, carbohydrates and amino acids were detected in various parts of the studied medicinal plants
Keywords:
Phytochemicals; Medicinal plants; North East India; Protein estimation
