Screening of anticancer medicinal plants for secondary metabolites

Anticancer medicinal plants contain cancer healing property due to their bioactive secondary metabolites. In the present work, 23 anticancer medicinal plant species representing 10 families of Metachlamydeae were considered for qualitative assessment of the secondary metabolites such as alkaloids, flavonoids, sterols, tannins, glycosides and saponins. All plant parts except the leaf of Leucas aspera gave positive responses to different alkaloid detecting reagents. For 6 other secondary metabolites 13, 14, 9, 15, 9 and 15 cases gave positive responses for flavonoid, sterol, resin, tannin, glycoside and saponin tests, respectively. Results of the screening work for secondary metabolites were discussed in relation to their abundance and distribution in different test plants and their organs.