Analysis of chemical constituents in medicinal plants of selected districts of Pakhtoonkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

Alkaloids, flavonoids and saponins were determined in the Teraxacam officinale, Cichorium intybus and Figonia tritica. Quantative determinations of crude alkaloids, flavonoids and saponins (g kg-1) and their percentages (%) were determined in C. intybus, T. officinale and F. critica collected from Kohat, Mardan, Nowshera and Peshawar regions. Thin layer chromatography (TLC) study of the alkaloids, flavonoids and saponins were carried out with different solvent systems and color of the spot and Rf value of each constituent was determined. Among the samples of C. intybus, relatively higher contents of alkaloids (14 g kg^-1) were found in the sample collected from Mardan region, followed by the sample gathered from Nowshera which is equal to 13.8g kg^-1. Higher contents of flavonoids were found in C. intybus collected from Kohat region which was 23.48 g kg^-1. The other remaining samples of C. intybus ranged in the decreasing order of 19.7, 17.2 and 10.0 g kg^-1 for the ones collected from Nowshera, Mardan and Peshawar, respectively. The overall saponin contents remained almost low as compared to the alkaloid and flavonoid contents.

Key words: Alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, TLC study, medicinal plants.