Preliminary Phytochemical Screening and FTIR Analysis of an Indian Medicinal Herb:Paederia foetida (Prasarini)

Aim: To carry out the preliminary qualitative phytochemical screening of leaf extract of an Indian herb P. foetida and Fourier Transform Infra-red Spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis of the extract containing the highest number of phytochemicals.

Method: The leaf extracts were prepared using, water, methanol, ethyl acetate and acetone. Several in vitro phytochemical analyses were carried to check for the presence various secondary metabolites. FTIR analysis of all the 4 extracts were carried out of the for identifying organic secondary metabolites.

Results: Ethyl acetate extract was found to be positive for most of the qualitative phytochemical screening test containing almost all the phytochemicals. The FTIR analysis revealed, that the leaf-extracts of P. foetida had phytochemicals of different functional groups such as alkanes, aromatic compounds, aldehydes, saturated fatty acids, alcohols, carboxylic acids, esters, ethers and alkyl halides.

Conclusion: The study concluded that, the Indian herb P. foetida is rich secondary metabolites and it can be used in the production alternative and complementary drugs, that can be against various human diseases.