International Journal of Phytomedicine 2 (2010) 379-384 http://www.arjournals.org/ijop.html Research Article ISSN: 0975-0185 Phytochemical constituents of Cadaba Trifoliata Roxb. root extract P. Velmurugan 1* , M. Kamaraj 1 , D. Prema 2 *Corresponding author: P. Velmurugan 1. PG & Research Department of Botany, Jamal Mohamed College, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu. India 2. Biological & Bioinformatics Research Centre, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu. India Abstract Cadaba trifoliata Roxb is belongs to the family Capparaceae, important medicinal plant of Indian medicinal plants. The methanol, ethanol, ethyl acetate and aqueous extracts along with dry powder of root were screened for the presence of phytochemicals. The phytochemical constituents were analyzed by qualitative and GC-MS method. Preliminary studies showed that the presence of Tannins, Steroids, Alkaloids, Glycosides, Flavonoids and Phenolic compounds. In the GC-MS analysis, 17 bioactive phytochemical compounds were identified in the alcoholic extract. The identification of phytochemical compounds in very high peak area, 1, 2-Benzenedicarboxylic acid, diisooctyl ester (C 24 H 38 O 4 ) with RT 24.95 has peak area 51.86% and 1-Methyl-pyrrolidine-2-carboxylic acid (C 6 H 11 NO 2 ) with RT 6.89 has peak area 20.58%. The main important compound phytol (C 20 H 40 O) with RT 18.95 ranks with peak area 1.21%. A nature compound contains diterpene activity anti-cancer, anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant activity and antimicrobial activity. Keywords:- Cadaba trifoliata, phytochemical constituents, alcoholic root extracts. Introduction Today natural products derived from plants are being tested for presence of new drugs with new modes of pharmacological action. A special feature of higher plants is their capacity to produce a large number of secondary metabolites [1]. Recent studies are involved in the identification and isolation of new therapeutic compounds of medicinal importance from higher plants for specific diseases [2,3]. Knowledge of the chemical constituents of plant is helpful in the discovery of therapeutic agent as well as new sources of economic materials like oil and gums. The most important bioactive constituents of these plants are alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids and phenolic compounds [4]. In India large number of plant species had been screened for their pharmacological properties but still a vast wealth of endangered species are unexplored. Medicinal plants are at interest to the field of biotechnology, as most of the drug industries depend in part on plants for the production of pharmaceutical compounds. Cadaba trifoliata (Capparaceae) in the folk system of medicine (Fig.1). This family of flowering plants containing 28 genera and about 700 species of annual or perennial herbs, sub- shrubs, shrubs or trees. The plant is an unarmed branched shrub up to 3 m height. Leaves are palmately trifoliate and the leaflets are oblong or doi:10.5138/ijpm.2010.0975.0185.02053 ©arjournals.org, All rights reserved. brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by International Journal of Phytomedicine