Abstract

COMPARATIVE PHYTOCHEMICAL STUDY OF STEM BARK VERSUS SMALL BRANCHES OF CASSIA FISTULA LINN. USING HIGH PERFORMANCE THIN LAYER CHROMATOGRAPHIC ULTRA VIOLET DETECTION METHOD

S. C. Verma*, E. Vashishth, S. Subhani, R. Singh, P. Pant, M. M. Padhi and A.Kumar

Abstract

Cassia fistula belonging to the family Fabacae commonly known as Golden Shower. In Ayurvedic medicine, Golden Shower Tree is known as "disease killer". In literature every part of this plant has been described to be useful for its medicinal properties. The stem bark is anti tubercular, anthelmintic, diuretic, depurative, emetic, febrifuge, laxative and useful in treatment of boils, colic, constipation, cardiac problems, dyspepsia, diabetic, fever, leprosy, ring worm, and pustules. It is effective in suppressing blood glucose levels and in prevention and management of coronary artery disease. The unique patterns of the chromatographic fingerprint were validated by analyzing stem bark and small branches of C. fistula. Our results revealed that the chromatographic fingerprint combined with similarity measurement could efficiently identify and distinguish C. fistula stem bark and small branches. The phytochemical fingerprint profiling of stem bark and small branches of C. fistula were found similar as an official part of C. fistula plant i.e. stem bark, therefore small branches may be used in place of stem bark and vice-versa after comparison and confirmation of same pharmacological activities. The method can also be used for identification of different C. fistula species and adulterants.

Keywords: Cassia fistula, HPTLC–UV detection, phytochemical fingerprint profiling analysis.