Journal of Biomedical Research, 2012, 26(4): 295-302 JBR Research Paper doi:10.7555/JBR.26.20110128 Abstract Plants and plant-based products are the bases of many modern pharmaceuticals that are current in use today for various diseases. The aim of the study was to investigate the biochemical constituents and high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) finger printing of the ethanolic extract of Evolvulus alsinoides. Phytochemi- cal screening was done by standard procedures and HPTLC method was also established to analyze alkaloids, fla- vonoids and phenolic compounds from the ethanolic extract of Evolvulus alsinoides. Preliminary phytochemical screening showed that ethanol extracted more secondary metabolites than other solvents. HPTLC fingerprinting analysis showed the presence of various alkaloids, flavonoids and phenols (quercetin) in the ethanolic extract. It can be concluded that Evolvulus alsinoides may serve as a source of potent antioxidants that may be used in the prevention of various diseases such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases due to the presence of phenolic compounds. HPTLC finger print of Evolvulus alsinoides may be useful in the differentiation of the species from adulterants and act as a biochemical marker for this medicinally important plant in the pharmaceutical industry and plant systematic studies. Keywords: Evolvulus alsinoides, high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC), secondary metabolites, convolvulaceae Secondary metabolite credentials of Evolvulus alsinoides by high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) Duraisamy Gomathi, Manokaran Kalaiselvi, Ganesan Ravikumar, Dominic Sophia, Velliyur Kanniappan Gopalakrishnan, Chandrasekar Uma * Department of Biochemistry, Karpagam University, Coimbatore 641021, India. Received 10 November 2011, Revised 03 February 2012, Accepted 24 May 2012, Epub 07 July 2012 INTRODUCTION Plants have been an important source of medicines for thousands of years. Even today, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that up to 80 percent of people still rely mainly on traditional remedies such as herbs for their medicines [1-3] . Herbs are now very popular in developing countries due to improved knowledge about the safety, efficacy and quality as- surance of ethnomedicine. In recent years, secondary plant metabolites (phytochemicals) have been exten- sively investigated as a source of medicinal agents. Thus, it is anticipated that phytochemicals with good antibacterial activity will be used for the treatment of bacterial infections [4,5] . Evolvulus alsinoides (E. alsinoides) is a perennial herb belonging to the family Convolvulaceae with a small woody and branched root stock [6] . This plant is used in traditional medicine to cure fever, cough, cold, venereal diseases, azoospermia, adenitis and dementia in East Asia, India, Africa and the Philippines. It has a known nootropic and anti-inflammatory activity [7,8] . * Corresponding author: Chandrasekar Uma, Ph.D, Department of Bio- chemistry, Karpagam University, Coimbatore 641021, India. Tex/Fax: 091-0422-2611146/091-0422-2611043, E-mail: umaradhakrishnan29@ gmail.com. The authors reported no conflict of interest. Available at http://elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldes-cription.cws_ home/723905/description#description. c 2012 by the Journal of Biomedical Research. All rights reserved.