Available online www.jocpr.com Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research, 2015, 7(7):840-850 Research Article ISSN : 0975-7384 CODEN(USA) : JCPRC5 840 Phytochemical screening and characterization of the bioactive compounds from the leaves of Hyptis suaveolens and Spathodea campanulata S. Nandha Kumar 1 and Nivetha Thampi 2* 1 Department of Biotechnology, St. Peter's University, Avadi, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India 2 Department of Biotechnology, Jeppiaar Engineering College, Rajiv Gandhi Salai, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India _____________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT Plant kingdom is a treasure house of potential drugs and in the recent years there has been an increasing awareness about the importance of medicinal plants. Drugs from plant sources are easily available, less expensive, safe, and efficient and rarely have side effects. Preliminary screening of phytochemicals is a valuable step in the detection of bioactive principles present in medicinal plants and may lead to novel environmentally friendly bioherbicides and drug discovery. In the present study, principal phytoconstituents from five solvent extracts of Hyptis suaveolens and Spathodea campanulata leaves were screened by using standard methods and resulted in the detection of the presence of tannins, flavonoids, phenolics, terpenoids, steroids, alkaloids and simple sugars. These phytocompounds were found higher in methanolic, aqueous and acetone extracts of both plants and hence they were characterized using UV-VIS and FT-IR to produce the spectrum profile. The crude extracts were scanned in the wavelength ranging from 200-800 nm and the characteristic peaks were detected. FTIR method was performed in mid infrared region 4000-400 cm -1 which was used to detect the characteristic peak values and their functional groups. The maximum compounds were found in the methanolic extract of H. suaveolens and the aqueous extract of S.campanulata with the presence of primary amines, alkanes, carboxylic acid, aromatics, alcohols, ketones and phenols. Our findings supported the evidence that these tested plants contain medicinally important bioactive compounds and it justifies their use in the traditional medicines for the treatment of various diseases. Key words: Phytochemical Screening, UV-VIS Spectrophotometer, FT-IR, Hyptis suaveolens, Spathodea campanulata. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION Medicinal plants are acknowledged as the richest bio-resources and human use of plants as medicinal agents predates recorded history. Ethnomedical plant usage have been extensively utilized in the development of formularies and pharmacopoeias, implementing a major focus in global health care, as well as contributing substantially to the drug development process [1]. As estimated by the WHO (World Health Organization), 80% of the population of some Asian and African countries presently use herbal medicines for some aspect of primary health care [2]. The research on medicinal plants include much more than the discovery of new drugs and this field has been elaborating to include diverse subjects as negotiation of power based on medicinal plant knowledge [3]. Plants produce several secondary metabolite compounds including flavonoids, saponins, steroids, alkaloids, glycosides, glucosinolates and terpenoids to protect themselves from the continuous attack of naturally occurring pathogens and environmental stresses [4]. The analysis of these constituents would help in determining various biological activities of plants. Natural products, either as pure compounds or as standardized plant extracts, provides boundless opportunities for the formulation of novel drug [5]. The secondary metabolites from plants vary in their structural arrangements and properties [6]. A large number of medicinal plants and their purified constituents have shown beneficial therapeutic potentials [7]. The main advantage of using medicinal plants products as a source of alternative drugs is that they does not produce side effects when compare with synthetic drugs [8]. Natural