Phytochemical Investigation of Water Soluble Phytoconstituents of Leptadenia reticulata (Retz.) Wight & Arn

Abstract

Leptadenia reticulata (Retz.) Wight & Arn, referred to as ‘Jivanti’ in ayurvedic texts, is held in high esteem in terms of its medicinal value. Apart from terpenoids and sterols, very few of the phytochemicals are reported in literature, especially water soluble constituents. In the present work, three flavonoids apart from those previously reported, have been identified occurring as O-glycosides. A flavone occurring as C-glycoside has also been identified in the plant. The analysis for flavonoids was done for leaf, young stem, mature stem and root individually using separation by paper chromatography and identification of the separated components using UV spectroscopy. Phenolic acid analysis involved a 2-D separation technique on paper, followed by derivatization using diazotizing reagents. Ferulic acid was the only phenolic acid reported earlier for this plant. The present study has unearthed six more phenolic acids. The amino acid content for the leaf, young stem, mature stem and root have been analyzed using co-chromatography of plant extracts, with 21 authentic amino acid standards, using paper chromatography.