PHARMACOGNOSTICAL AND PHYTOCHEMICAL EVALUATION OF TRICHOSANTHES CUCUMERINA VAR. CUCUMERINA LINN. LEAVES
AbstractTrichosanthes cucumerina var. cucumerina Linn. is an annual monoecious climber. Trichosanthes cucumerina var. cucumerina Linn. mainly distributed in Asian countries like India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Burma, Malaysia, and Australia. Trichosanthes cucumerina var. cucumerina is a wild variant (Cucurbitaceae) the major active components are triterpenoids, saponins, and cucurbitacins; chemical constituents like flavonoids, carotenoids and phenolic acids are also present. Trichosanthes cucumerina var. cucumerina is used in the treatment of headache, alopecia, fever, abdominal tumors, bilious, boils, acute colic, diarrhea, haematuria, and skin allergy, etc. Trichosanthes cucumerina is used as an abortifacient, vermifuge, refrigerant, purgative, malaria, laxative, hem agglutinant, emetic, cathartic, bronchitis and anthelmintic. The present study involves the pharmacognostical and phytochemical studies of the plant. The transverse section was taken for the microscopical studies. Powder microscopy shows the presence of annular, spiral, cylindrical, tubular and thick-walled xylem vessels. Different physicochemical evaluation ash value, extractive value, fluorescence analysis, etc, were performed. Phytochemical evaluation is performed for the ethanolic extract of leaves presence of alkaloids; flavanoids, glycosides, phenols, etc. are confirmed.