INVESTIGATION OF CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF FLUEGGEA LEUCOPYRUS (WILLD.)

Flueggea leucopyrus (Willd) is a medicinal herb belongs to the family Euphorbiacea. The present study focused on the qualitative and quantitative investigation of phytochemicals, determination of major elements, and proximate analysis of the bark and the leaves of F.leucopyrus(Willd). The leaves and the bark extracts were screened for alkaloids, terpenoids, unsaturated sterols, glycosides, saponins, phenolics, flavonoids, tannins, carbohydrates and protein. All the extracts gave positive results for the above screening tests. Quantitative analysis showed the presence of 0.13 % of alkaloids, 0.74 % of saponins and 1.15 % of tannins in the methanolic extract of the leaves and 0.02 %, 0.19 % and 1.62 % in the methanolic extract of the bark respectively. Total phenolics were 34.86 mg/g, 3.98 mg/g, 38.49 mg/g and 29.93 mg/g in gallic acid equivalent for the aqueous extracts of the leaves and the bark and methanolic extracts of the leaves and the bark respectively. Total flavonoids were 20.33 mg/g, 11.86 mg/g, 11.48 mg/g and 6.42 mg/g in quercetin equivalent for the aqueous extracts of the leaves and the bark and methanolic extracts of the leaves and the bark respectively. It was found that carbohydrates were present as 48.73 % and 53.07 %, in the leaves and the bark respectively whereas proteins were present as 21.20 % and 12.87 % in the leaves and the bark respectively. Further, the proximate analysis showed that moisture content, ash content, lipids content and fiber content were 10.20 g/100 g, 7.06 g/100 g, 1.50 g/100 g and 8.44 g/100 g in the leaves and 11.82 g/100 g, 6.03 g/100 g, 0.75 g/100 g and 14.56 g/100 g in the bark respectively. The elemental analysis revealed that nitrogen, sodium, potasium and phosphorus were 3.39 g/100 g, 0.37 g/100 g, 0.36 g/100 g and 0.01 g/100 g in the leaves and 2.06 g/100 g, 0.23 g/100 g, 0.27 g/100 g and 0.01 g/100 g in the bark respectively.