PRELIMINARY PHYTOCHEMICAL EVALUATION OF AERIAL PARTS OF SPHAERANTHUS INDICUS LINN. (ASTERACEAE)

Sphaeranthus indicus Linn (Asteraceae) is a popular and very useful plant used in the Indian system of medicine. It is usually found in damp areas, plains, and weeds in the rice fields. In the Ayurvedic system of medicine, the plant as a whole plant or its different parts like leaf, stem, bark, root, flower, and seed is widely used for curing many diseases. The plant is enriched with secondary metabolites such as eudesmanolides, sesquiterpenoids, sesquiterpene lactones, sesquiterpene acids, flavone glycosides, flavonoid C‑glycosides, isoflavone glycoside, sterols, sterol glycoside, alkaloid, peptide alkaloids, amino acids, and sugars. The essential oil has been isolated from flowers and whole plants. In this present study, various methods are carried out to evaluate the pharmacognostic parameters of crude drug and aqeous extract of aerial part of the plant, which may form the basis for the further use of the plant and for the evaluation of its various pharmacological activities. The physicochemical evaluation confirms the quality and purity of the crude drug. Aqeous extract of Sphaeranthus indicus (AESI) was found to be rich in the presence of alkaloids, proteins, amino acids, saponins, flavonoids, and other phenolic compounds, while glycosides, sterols, carbohydrates, and volatile oils were found to be absent. The quantitative estimation of phytoconstituents viz. total flavonoids and total phenolics and saponins revealed that AESI was found rich in total flavonoids while less amount of total phenolic content while total saponin was present in a fair amount. This present study can be a basis of further evaluation of various pharmacological activities of the aqueous extract of Sphaeranthus indicus.