A quantitative assessment of bioactive phytochemicals of Nerium indicum: An ethnopharmacological herb

Phytochemicals fall under various classes of chemicals which are solely derived from plants. Some of these plants possess immense medicinal and therapeutic value for which the modern pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industry aims towards utilizing the natural plant based resources. These phytochemicals have lesser side effects as believed than the conventional synthetic chemicals and also are more economic. From ages, extracts from various plants are used as traditional medicines all over the world. These extracts, rich in phytochemicals, may provide protection from various diseases and also may develop the resistance against some diseases. Nerium indicum is one of the traditional medicinal plants used all over the world and especially in Indian subcontinent and China. In the present study we have documented the presence or absence of different phytochemicals like tannin, phlobatannin, cholesterol, terpinoid, glycoside, phenolics, flavonoid, steroid, anthraquinone, saponin, carbohydrate, alkaloid and protein in leaf, stem separately and root apart from the whole plant part of N.indicum. We also quantified the amount of saponin, alkaloid, flavonoid, tannin, riboflavin, ascorbic acid, thiamine, soluble sugar, protein, lipid, total moisture and ash content in different parts of the plant. All the methods followed are standard biochemical and spectrophotometric procedures for detection and quantification of phytochemicals. This may lead to open a new vista regarding the medicinal value of N. indicum.