PRELIMINARY PHYTOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF ELEPHANTOPUS SCABER L. - A WILD MEDICINAL PLANT

Elephantopus scaber L. is a popular plant that has been traditionally used as medicine to cure several diseases. It shows encouraging prospect in treatment of cancer, diabetics, rheumatism, fever, scabies and many other ailments. Phytochemical analysis revealed that the plant is a rich source of terpenoids and flavonoids. The present investigation deals with the ash and extractive values, fluorescence analysis and preliminary phytochemical screening of leaf powder of Elephantopus scaber L. Phytochemical analysis of the aqueous, methanol, Di ethyl ether and acetone fractionated portions of the leaf extracts revealed the presence of quinones, steroid, flavonoids, phenols, cardiac glycoside, cholesterol, tannins and terpenoids. Aqueous extract could indicate presence of saponins. Coumarins could be marked when methanol and water were used as solvent. Anthraquinones were found absent whereas alkaloids could be detected with all solvents except acetone.