ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Phytochemical Screening and Functional Groups Identification of Cardiospermum halicacabum L. Leaves

Background: The phytochemical components are extremely important to facilitate the search for the particular effectiveness of the plant in medicine. Identification of the chemical nature of phytochemical compounds present in medicinal plants will provide information about the various functional groups responsible for its medicinal properties. Thus, the need to investigate the phytochemicals from various plants has been exponentially increasing. Cardiospermum halicacabum L. is one of the most important medicinal plants belonging to the Sapindaceae family. This investigation was administered to study phytochemical and FT-IR analysis of a various solvent extracts of Cardiospermum halicacabum L. leaves.
Results: The preliminary phytochemical analysis of Cardiospermum halicacabum L. leaves extract revealed the presence of carbohydrates, glycosides, alkaloids, phytosterol, fixed oils, saponins, proteins, and amino acids, phenolic compounds, flavonoids, and tannins. As a result, the phytochemical analysis of aqueous extracts revealed the presence of more phyto components followed by petroleum ether, and chloroform extracts. FT-IR spectroscopy confirmed the existence of various chemical components such as alcohol, alkanes, aromatic compound, carboxylic acid, aldehydes, alkenes, amides, nitro compounds and alkyl halides in the leaves extract of C. halicacabum L. The functional groups observed in the various extracts probably indicate the presence of carbohydrates, glycosides, alkaloids, amino acids, phenols, flavonoids, tannins, and saponins. The results obtained from FTIR analysis are significant with the preliminary qualitative analysis.
Conclusions: Extractions of any crude drug with a certain solvent result in a solution that contains various phyto-components. The composition of these phyto-components in the respective solvent provides initial information about the quality of a drug sample. The presence or absence of a certain component plays an important role in the decision about the medicinal properties of the plant. As a result, the phytochemical analysis of aqueous extracts revealed the presence of more phyto-components followed by petroleum ether, and chloroform extracts which can be beneficial in a therapeutic approach.