Phytochemical screening of Euphorbia hirta linn leaf extracts

Abstract

Euphorbia hirta belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae is well known for its medicinal properties and widely used worldwide. Euphorbia hirta leaves was investigated for its Ash value, extractive value, total moisture content and fluorescence analysis. Further, the present study aimed to identify the various phytochemical constituents present in the three different extracts by using standard methods of phytochemical screening. Powdered plant material contained 8.90% Ash value, 7.0% w/w water soluble extract, 14.85% w/w ethanol soluble extract, 9.71% w/w methanol soluble extract, 9.84% w/w moisture content and fluorescence to some treatments. The chemical constituents of the ethanolic and methanolic leaf extracts of the plant were relatively similar in the presence of proteins, fats and oils, gums and mucilages as primary metabolites and alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, tannin, phenol, steroid, glycoside, saponin, coumarin as secondary plant metabolites. Amino acids, carbohydrates and anthraquinones did not detected. In contrast, aqueous extract appeared to posses the constituents such as carbohydrates, proteins, amino acid, tannin, phenol, steroid, saponin and anthraquinone  with a negative result to alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, glycosides, fat and oils, coumarin, gums and mucilages. In conclusion, the reported results support the leaf extracts of Euphorbia hirta to exhibit a wide spectrum of pharmacological activities and promisingly used as traditional medicine.