International Journal of ChemTech Research CODEN (USA): IJCRGG ISSN : 0974-4290 Vol.4, No.1, pp 16-20, Jan-Mar 2012 Screening of Phytochemicals and Identification of Chemical constituents of Pongamia pinnata by GC-MS R.Anuradha 1 * and Palaniyandi Krishnamoorthy 2 1 Department of Biochemistry, S.T.E.T. Women’s College, Sundarakottai, Mannargudi-614016, Tamilnadu ,India. 2 Department of Zoology, Rajah Serfoji Govt College(Auto.),Thanjavur,Tamilnadu, India. *Corres.author: anu_ra09 @ yahoo.in Abstract: The flowers of Pongamia pinnata was extracted with methanol was subjected to preliminary phytochemical analysis. Flavonoids, alkaloids, carbohydrates, tannins, lignins, saponins, glycosides and fixed oil and fats were found to be present. The methanolic crude extract further fractionated with three different solvents, i.e. benzene, dethyl ether and ethyl acetate.and the chemical composition of the ethyl acetate extract was determined by GC/MS analysis.The present investigation revealed the following major compounds from P.pinnata. In this analysis 30 bioactive phytochemical constituents were identified. Based on the peak area and molecular weight, the dibutyl phthalate and oleic acid was observed as the major constituents. Keywords: Pongamia pinnata, GC-MS, Phytochemicals ,Chemical constituents. Introduction The aim of this work was to characterize the chemical composition of flowers extract of Pongamia pinnata. Pongamia pinnata (Linn.) is a medium sized glabrous tree popularly known as karanja in hindi, Indian Beech in English and Pongam in Tamil 1 . Most of the Indian system of traditional medicine Ayurveda and Siddha used to treat P.pinnata for various kinds of diseases including diabetes mellitus 2 . The seeds are reported to contain on an average about 28 – 34% oil with high percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids 3 . Historically, Pongamia has been used as folk medicinal plant, particularly in Ayurvedha and Siddha systems of Indian medicine 4 . All parts of the plant have been used as a crude drug for the treatment of tumours, piles, skin diseases, itches, abscess, painful rheumatic joints wounds, ulcers, diarrhoea etc 4,5 . More recently, the effectiveness of P. pinnata as a source of biomedicines has been reported 6 specifically as antimicrobial and therapeutic agents. Nature produces a large number of chemical compounds those structures and properties have fascinated by organic chemists to describe the chemistry of these compounds 7 . Materials and Methods The fresh flowers of Pongamia pinnata was collected from the local gardens of S.T.E.T. Women’s College, Mannargudi and voucher specimens are deposited in the STET Herbarium at the Department of Botany and Microbiology, S.T.E.T. Women’s College, Mannargudi.