QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING OF DIFFERENT PLANT PARTS OF PHYLLANTHUS AMARUS SCHUM. & THONN. COLLECTED FROM CENTRAL INDIA WITH RESPECT TO THE TRADITIONAL CLAIMS FOR THEIR MEDICINAL USES

Phyllanthus amarus Schum. and Thonn. is one of the highly used medicinal plants both traditionally and scientifically. Phytochemical screening is of high importance to establish the claims of medicinal uses by traditional and folk medicine practitioners. Since, environmental, climatic and soil conditions have strong effect on production and level of particular phytochemicals in a given plant part, present study was focused on the locally available plant variety and to establish the traditional claims for its medicinal uses. The qualitative and quantitative estimation of different plant parts of P. amarus collected from Jabalpur, India revealed the presence of high amounts of phenolic compounds, alkaloids, saponins, flavonoids and terpenoids in aerial parts of the plant i.e. stem and leaf. Roots and fruits showed high amount of phenolics and terpenoids. This is the first study that was performed with separated plant parts and not with the whole plant. The present study is an attempt to reinvestigate Phyllanthus amarus Schum and Thonn from Central India for the phytochemical analysis and correlate the traditional uses of the plant.