Research article

QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING, OPTIMIZING THE EXTRACTION AND FRACTIONATION OF TANACETUM UMBELLIFERUM BY USING RESPONSE SURFACE METHODOLOGY

Rabia Zahid1*, Muhammad Akram1, Hafiz Muhammad Asif2, Hamayun Mumtaz3, Mukhtiar Ahmad2

Online First: October 18, 2022


Phytochemicals are characterized as bioactive nutritional plant compounds that advantages extend beyond basic nutrition. The presence of various phytochemicals such as saponins, tannins, steroids, coumarins, terpenoids, anthocyanins, fatty acids emodins and leucoanthocyanins, are confirmed by qualitative phytochemical analysis of some significant medicinal plants. These findings suggest that these plants have potential pharmacological properties as well as biochemical properties for treating various diseases. In current study qualitative phytochemical analysis was performed for the detection of existing phytochemicals in T. umbelliferum hydroethanolic extract followed by quantitative analysis for quantitizing these phytochemicals. The plant was further subjected to fractionation in different polarity based solvents i.e. 1-butanol, chloroform and n-hexane and percentage yield was measured for each fraction. The experimental design was determined at optimum level using response surface methodology. The predicted values of percentage yield by means of RSM were close to experimented results therefore optimization was achieved at its maximum output. The phytochemical trials affirm the occurrence of carbohydrates, terpenoids, glycosides, phenols, saponins, alkaloids, flavonoids and tannins whereas proteins and amino acids were not reported in extract of T. umbelliferum. In quantitative analysis the phytochemicals in high concentration were determined as phenolic compounds followed by flavonoids, saponins, tannins and alkaloids. The fractions formation suggested that highest variety of phytochemicals can be achieved by using mixture of hydroethanolic solvent that declines while moving towards either extreme pole and least percentage yield was obtained by nonpolar solvent i.e. n-hexane. This analysis also paves the way for the isolation of new and novel compounds.

Keywords

Phytochemical screening, Medicinal plant, Quantitative analysis, Alternative therapy, Tanacetum umbelliferum