~ 463 ~ The Pharma Innovation Journal 2020; 9(7): 463-467 ISSN (E): 2277- 7695 ISSN (P): 2349-8242 NAAS Rating: 5.03 TPI 2020; 9(7): 463-467 © 2020 TPI www.thepharmajournal.com Received: 28-05-2020 Accepted: 30-06-2020 Brij Mohan Natural Product Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Govt. Science College, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India Hari Om Saxena NWFP section, SFM & AF Division, Tropical Forest Research Institute, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India Samiksha Parihar NWFP section, SFM & AF Division, Tropical Forest Research Institute, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India Arun Kakkar Natural Product Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Govt. Science College, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India Corresponding Author: Brij Mohan Natural Product Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Govt. Science College, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) determination of phytoconstituents from ethanolic and aqua-ethanolic root extracts of Uraria picta Desv. (Fabaceae) Brij Mohan, Hari Om Saxena, Samiksha Parihar and Arun Kakkar DOI: https://doi.org/10.22271/tpi.2020.v9.i7g.4973 Abstract This is a first-time study on Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) determination of phytoconstituents from ethanolic and aqua-ethanolic root extracts of Uraria picta. It is a commercially importance species which is utilized in Dashmoolarishta, an established ayurvedic drug of ISM. GC-MS determined two major phytoconstituents in ethanolic extract as N-Capric acid Isopropyl Ester (RT- 21.397, 60.98%), 9-Octadecenoic acid (Z) -, Hexyl Ester (RT- 23.298, 39.02%) and three compounds in aqua-ethanolic extract namely Propanoic acid, 2- Hydroxy-, Pentyl Ester (RT- 11.697, 81.64%), α - D- Mannofuranoside, 1-Nonyl - (RT- 20.28, 7.87%) and 2-Bromopropionic acid, Penta decyl ester (RT- 21.486, 6.77%). Four phytocompounds investigated from roots in the present study have commercial significance. Keywords: Uraria picta, roots, ethanolic and aqua-ethanolic extracts, GC-MS analysis 1. Introduction Plants have been used since ancient times to heal and cure diseases and to improve health and wellbeing. Despite ancient nature of the tradition, medicinal plants still form the basis of traditional or indigenous health systems and their use is increasing worldwide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 80% of the world’s population currently uses herbal medicines directly as teas, decocts or extracts with easily accessible liquids such as water, milk, or alcohol (Julsing et al., 2007) [1] . There are many reports on the use of medicinal plants traditionally by tribals and indigenous people (Ignacimuthu et al., 1998, Natarajan et al., 1999, Rajan et al., 2002, Ayyanar & Iganacimuthu, 2005 and Sandhy et al., 2006) [2-6] . The quality and efficacy of medicinal plants/raw materials depends on their biologically active compounds (Saxena et al., 2016; Joshi & Uniyal, 2008) [7-8] and there is also need to extract and identify the phytoconstituents for therapeutic target (Vuorela et al., 2004) [9] . Gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS) has commonly been used for analysis of volatile bioactive compounds. It is a hyphenated technique which couples two analytical techniques GC and MS to a single system of analyzing mixtures of chemical compounds. GC separates the components of the mixture and MS analyzes each of the components separately through fragmentation (Bai et al., 2014; Arora and Kumar, 2017) [10, 11] . Uraria picta Desv. (Syn. Doodia picta Roxb., Hedysarum pictum Jacq., Family- Fabaceae) is commonly known as Prishnaparni or Pithvan and widely distributed throughout India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Tropical Africa, Malay Islands, Philippines, Australia, Africa and almost all parts of Asia (McNeill et al., 2006; Ohashi and Iokawa, 2007) [12, 13] . It is one of the important constituents of “Dashmoolarista”, a well-established ayurvedic drug of Indian system of medicine (ISM), where the roots of this plant are principally employed along with the roots of 10 other plants. The drug is used for treating general fatigue, oral sores and several gynecological disorders (Yadav et al., 2009) [14] . Dashmool is also used as basic ingredient in manufacture of over 109 drug formulations (Pathak et al., 2005) [15] . Traditionally, the plant is used as an antidote to the venom of a dangerous Indian snake, Echis carinata (Kirtikar and Basu, 1993) [16] . Its roots are being used against cough, chills and fever (Kirtikar and Basu, 1993; Yusuf et al., 1994) [16, 17] . Since the roots of U. picta are utilized in in a number of herbal formulations but still not explored much in terms of its chemical constituents. Therefore, the