PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING OF ARDISIA BLATTERI GAMBLE: AN ENDEMIC PLANT OF SOUTHERN WESTERN GHATS, TAMIL NADU, INDIA

Abstract

The genus Ardisia Sw (coralberry or marlberry). is the largest genus in the family Myrsinaceae and comprises approximately 500 species distributed throughout subtropical and tropical regions of the world. This genus is a good source of health promoting compounds and potent phytopharmaceuticals. In India, 13 species are enumerated. Within this, seven species are endemic to India and nine species are recorded in Tamil Nadu. Ardisia blatteri is an evergreen small tree, endemic to southern Western Ghats. The Preliminary phytochemical screening of plant revealed the presence of various classes of compounds such as alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, reducing sugars, tannins, and terpenoids. GC-MS analysis has investigated on the ethanol extract of Ardisia blatteri, resulted with 40 known compounds in various degrees of distribution. Hexadecanoic acid (21.74%), Octamethyl (24.73%) are the major constituents. About 8 constituents are minor and 30 constituents are trace amount in the plant extract.