438 www.experimentjournal.com ISSN-2319-2119 RESEARCH ARTICLE Mohammad Shahriar, The Experiment, Feb, 2013 Vol. .7(4), 438-401 PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENINGS AND THROMBOLYTIC ACTIVITY OF THE LEAF EXTRACTS OF ADHATODA VASICA ABSTRACT In this present study, the leaves extracts of Adhatoda vasica were subjected to the thrombolytic activities were assessed by using human erythrocyte and the results were compared with standard streptokinase (SK). On the other hand, preliminary phytochemical investigation suggested the presence of reducing sugar group, tannins, saponins, flavonoids and alkaloids. Key words: thrombolytic activity, Adhatoda vasica, phytochemical screening. INTRODUCTION: Adhatoda vasica, also known as malabar nut tree is part of the Acanthaceae plant family. It is a small evergreen, sub-herbacious bush which grows commonly in open plains, especially in the lower Himalayas (up to 1300 meters above sea level), India, Sri Lanka, Burma and Malaysia. It is a highly reputed plant used in Ayurverdic system of medicine for the treatment of various ailments of respiratory systems like bronchitis, asthma and it is also used in the treatment of malaria, dysentery and diarrhea (1) and has many other medicinal applications (2-4) , it shows potent anti-inflammatory activity (2) and Adhatoda Vasica was traditionally used by midwives at the time of delivery because of its uterotnoic activity. Due to its anti-implantation activity, adhatoda should not be used while pregnant (3) . As a part of our continuing studies on medicinal plants of Bangladesh (5-10) , the organic soluble materials of the extracts of Adhatoda vasica were evaluated for phytochemical screenings, anti-thrombolytic activity for the first time. Materials and Methods: Plant materials: The leaves of Adhatoda vasica were collected from Pabna, Bangladesh, in January 2012. A voucher specimen is submitted for this plant to Bangladesh National Herbarium, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The sun dried and powdered plant parts (500 gm) of Adhatoda vasica was successively extracted in a soxhlet extractor at elevated temperature using 200 ml of distilled methanol (40-60)°C which was followed by n-hexane and carbon tetrachloride. All extracts were filtered individually through filter paper and poured on petri dishes to evaporate the liquid solvents from the extract to get dry extracts. The dry crude extracts were weighed and stored in air-tight container with necessary markings for identification and kept in refrigerator (0-4)°C for future investigation. Preliminary phytochemical screening: One gram of the mthanol extract was dissolved in 100 ml of methanol and was subjected to preliminary phytochemical screenings for determining nature of phytoconstituents (11-12) .