The present work was done for seven ethnomedicinal plants used by the inhabitants of Mizoram in order to investigate the presence of various phytoconstituents. The root-stock of Alocasia indica, leaves of Bidens pillosa, Chromolaena odorata, Elaeagnus caudata and Spilanthes acmella, the latex of Carica papaya and rhizomes of Curcuma caesia were dried and powdered. The chloroform extract of each sample were prepared by soaking dried powdered samples in chloroform for 72 h. The extracts were filtered using Whatman filter paper No. 42 (125 mm). The filtrates of plant extracts were preserved at 4-5 ºC for further process. Crude extracts of selected plants parts were analyzed using TLC coupled to HPLC fingerprinting, which gives some prominent and moderate peaks with different retention time, which may be a bioactive compounds.

Croton caudatus (Kam sabut) has been traditionally used to treat cancer in northeastern India and earlier studies reported the anticancer activity of ethanolic extract of C. caudatus leaves in HeLa cells in vitro and Swiss albino mice transplanted with Dalton’s ascites lymphoma. Therefore, isolation of stigmasterol and β-sitosterol from the ethanolic extract of C. caudatus Geiseler leaves was carried out. Stigmasterol and β-sitosterol were isolated from the ethanolic extract of dried leaves of C. caudatus by column chromatography. The fractions were purified further on Sephadex® LH-20 column chromatography and reverse-phase HPLC. The isolated phytosterols were characterized and quantified by IR, 1H & 13 CNMR, mass spectroscopy and HPLC. This has led to the separation of 100 mg stigmasterol and 80 mg β-sitosterol. Stigmasterol and β-sitosterol have been isolated from the ethanolic extract of C. caudatus leaves for the first time.