Phytochemicals have great potency as therapeutic agents. There is continuous and urgent need to discover new therapeutic compounds with diverse chemical structures and novel mechanism of action because there has been an alarming increase in the incidence of new and re-emerging infectious diseases. Hence, the present investigation was carried out to assess the phytoconstituents of leaf extracts of four different medicinal plants viz. Acorus calamus, Senna alata, Solanum torvum and Solanum trilobatum. The leaves of four plants were collected from their wild habitats, washed, air dried and then powdered. The solvent extracts of the respective leaves were prepared using Soxhlet apparatus with acetone, ethanol and petroleum ether. The extracts were subjected to preliminary phytochemical analyses as per standard procedures. The results showed that alkaloids were present in all the four plants analyzed and all the three solvents extracted. Meanwhile, carbohydrates and proteins were absent in the same. It was also indicated that the ethanol extract of Solanum trilobatum leaf showed the presence of 7 compounds among 9 phytochemicals analyzed. The result of this study is encouraging further quantitative estimation and the need for clinical studies to determine the potential effectiveness of particular phytochemical in vivo. Keywords: Preliminary phytochemical analyses, Acorus calamus, Senna alata, Solanum torvum and Solanum trilobatum.

Preliminary phytochemical tests played a significant role in finding and locating chemical constituents which are source of pharmacologically active principles. By consider the medicinal importance of tuber of Acorus calamus, flower of Senna alata and fruit of Solanum torvum, the present study was designed to screen the phytochemical constituents present in such plant parts preliminarily. The phytochemical analyses were conducted by employing standard methods to detect the presence/absence of alkaloids, carbohydrates, flavonoids, glycosides, phenols, phytosterols, proteins, saponins and tannins. The results of present study revealed that alkaloids were found to be present in all the three plants analyzed and all the three solvents extracted, whereas, glycosides and phenols were absent. The acetone extract of Acorus calamus and Solanum torvum showed the presence more number of phytochemicals (4 each) and petroleum ether extract of Senna alata and Solanum torvum revealed the presence of only one compound. The potential active principles of the detected compounds should be quantified and pharmacologically evaluated. Keywords: Preliminary phytochemical analyses, Acorus calamus tuber, Senna alata flower, Solanum torvum fruit.

No abstract