Screening of Phytochemical Constituents of Nymphaea Caerulea savigny. An Aquatic Plant Resource for Drug Development

Objectives: Nymphaea caerulea Savigny. is multipurpose medicinal plant has been mentioned for the treatment of liver disorders in Ayurveda, an ancient system of medicine. Hence the Phytochemical evaluation and estimation of secondary metabolites were carried out. Methods: Polar and non-polar solvents were used to extract maximum number of compounds from various plant parts of N. caerulea preliminary screening analysis (Gibbs, 1974) and quantitative estimation of phytochemicals (Makkar et al., 1993) was carried out. Results: The results revealed that the plant is a rich source of different secondary metabolites like anthocyanins, anthraqunones, emodins, fatty acids, flavonoids, luecoanthocyanins, glycosides, phenols, coumarins, tannins and triterpenoids. Methanol, ethanol, chloroform and water extracts of leaf and flower are excellent source of phytocostituenpts when compare with rhizome and root. Conclusion: The findings of the study will be helpful to the pharmacologists and phytochemists for identification of novel potential active compounds