Phytochemical Screening and Evaluation of various Pharmacological activities of Eremurus Himalaicus

Abstract

The use of herbal medicine for the treatment of various ailments came into existence long before the modern medicine. Even now, a large number of the inhabitants of the world still rely on herbal medicine. In fact, most of the currently available therapeutic agents have been derived directly or indirectly from plants. Moreover, with the advent of many new diseases and their resistance to the presently available drugs, many new plants newlineare being screened for their therapeutic properties; however, still many are unexplored and Eremurus himalaicus is one such plant. Thus, in the present study, the plant Eremurus himalaicus has been selected for assessment of its possible therapeutic newlinepotential. The present day health concerns have been taken into account and the activities that have been looked upon include anti-oxidant activity, anti-microbial activity, antiinflammatory newlineactivity, anti-hepatotoxic activity and anti-hyperlipidemic activity. newlineMoreover, acute toxicity testing along with phytochemical and physicochemical analysis newlinewas also performed. newlineIn the first step of the study, the phytochemical screening of the petroleum ether, ethyl acetate, methanolic and aqueous extracts of Eremurus himalaicus was performed and the secondary metabolites that were found to be present includes alkaloids, flavonoids, phenolics, tannins, saponins, cardiac glycosides and terpenes. The presence of these phytochemicals suggests that this plant may have promising pharmaceutical applications. The various physicochemical parameters were also determined which includes organoleptic properties, loss on drying, acid insoluble ash value, water soluble ash value, total ash value, residue on ignition and pH value at 5% and 10% dilution. The values that were observed for these parameters may be set as the standard values which newlinemay be employed in its quality control. newlineFor the determination of antioxidant potential total phenolics content, total newlineflavonoids content, DPPH assay, H2O2 scavenging assay and total reduction newlinecapability assay were carried out..