INTRODUCTION:

Medicinal plants have been a major source of cure for human diseases since time immemorial. It is no wonder that the world’s one-fourth population i.e. 1.42 billion people, are dependent on traditional medicines for the treatment of various ailments^[1]. Medicinal herbs are moving from fringe to main stream use with a greater number of people seeking remedies and health approaches free from side effects caused by synthetic chemicals.

Recently considerable attention has been paid to utilize eco-friendly and bio-friendly plant based products for the prevention and cure of different human diseases. Considering the adverse effects of synthetic drugs, the Western population is looking for natural remedies, which are safe and effective. It is documented that most of the World’s population has taken in traditional medicine, particularly plant drug for the primary health care^[2]^. The Indian flora offers a variety of plants having medicinal properties. These plants can be exploited to find out effective alternative to synthetic drugs^[3].

Vernonia patula (Bengali name: Kukshim ) is a genus of about 100 species of forbs and shrubs in the family Asteraceae, Some species are known as Ironweed. Some species are edible and of economic value. They are known for having intense purple flowers, the genus is named for English Botanist William Bernon. There are numerous distinct subgenera and subsections in this genus. The plant is an erect annual weed about a meter high; stem stiff; striate; slightly branched. Leaves 2.5-5 cm long (the upper leaves the smallest), variable in shape, broadly-elliptic or lanceolate, obtuse or acute, irregular toothed or shallowly crenate-serrate. Heads small, about 20-flowered, 6mm in diameter, divaricate, terminal corymbs. Flowers pinkish violet. The plant is tonic, stomachic, astringent and strong diaphoretic; decoction is used to promote perspiration in febrile condition. Juice of the plant is useful in piles; malaria and incontinence of urine in the children .Fresh juice if the leaves are given in amoebiasis. Roots are enthelmintic. It’s decoction is given in diarrhea, dropsy, cough, stomachache and colic. The flowers are used in conjunctivitis; fever and rheumatism. They are also given in cough, flatulence, intestinal colic, dysuria, leucoderma, psoriasis and other chronic skin diseases. The primary goal of the research will be complemented by a series of further secondary aims-

1. Extraction of the plant material by using solvent

2. Qualitative analysis of different chemical group present in the plant extracts to get preliminary idea about the compound present in the extract.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Vernonia patula was subjected to pharmacognostic study. The various methods used in the study included organoleptic study, fluorescence analysis and preliminary phytochemical studies.

Organoleptic study:

The powder of Vernonia patula was used for studies. The colour variation and taste were the basis for this test as given by Jackson and Snowdown ^[5].

The fluorescence properties were studied under UV light adopting the method described by Kokoshi, Chase and Pratt ^{[6,7 ].} The behavior of the samples with different chemical reagents was studied and fluorescence characters were observed on long UV light at 254nm.

About 20 gm of the powder of Vernonia patula was weighed accurately and mixed with 250 ml of hot water. After 1hour it was filtered and the supernatant was used as the extract. The preliminary phytochemical test of this extract was performed by specific reagents. These extracts were subjected to qualitative chemical tests for detection of various plant constituents.

Table - 1. Organoleptic study of the powder:

1.	Colour	Deep green
2.	Odour	Characteristics
3.	Taste	slightly bitter

Table -2. The fluorescence analysis of the powder of Vernonia patula:

S.No.	Treatment with chemical reagents	Observation
1.	Powder as such	Deep green
2.	Powder + 1N Sodium hydroxide in methanol	Brown
3.	Powder + 1N Sodium hydroxide in water	green
4.	Powder + 50% Hydrochloric acid	Yellowish brown
5.	Powder + 50% Sulphuric acid	Yellowish green
6.	Powder + 50% Nitric acid	Green
7.	Powder + Petroleum ether	Green
8.	Powder + Chloroform	Deep green
9.	Powder + Picric acid	Green
10.	Powder + 5% Ferric chloride solution	Green
11.	Powder + 5% Iodine solution	Deep brown
12.	Powder + Methanol	Light Green
13.	Powder + (Nitric acid + Ammonia)	Green

Table- 3. The behaviour of the leaf powder of Vernonia patula when treated with different chemical reagents

S.No.	Treatment with chemical reagents	Observation
1.	Powder as such	Deep Green
2.	Concentrated Hydrochloric acid	Light Yellow
3.	Concentrated Sulphuric acid	Deep brown
4.	Concentrated Nitric acid	Reddish brown
5.	Glacial acetic acid	Blackish green
6.	5% Sodium hydroxide solution	Green
7.	5% Potassium hydroxide solution	Green
8.	5% Ferric chloride solution	Brown
9.	Picric acid	Yellow
10.	Ammonia	Yellowish Green
11.	Powder + 1N Sodium hydroxide in methanol	Light brown
12.	Powder + 1N Sodium hydroxide in water	Yellowish Green

Table- 4. Different chemical group tests of Vernonia patula and their results

Test groups	Name of the test	Presumption
Reducing sugar	Fehling’s solution test	+
Reducing sugar	Benedict’s test	+
Steroids	Salkowski and Libermann-burchared test	+
Glycosides	Salkowski test	+
	Libermann-burchared test	+
	Keller-Kiliani test	+
Tannins	Ferric chloride Test	+
	Potassium dichromate test	+
	Keller-Kiliani test	+
Alkaloids	Mayer^’s test	+
	Dragendorff’s reagent test	+
	Wagner’s reagent test	+
	Hager’s reagent test	+
	Tannic acid test
Flavonoids		-
Saponins		-
Gums		+

+ = Presence ; – = Absence

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

The pharmacognostical characters of the aerial powders have been studied by screening the same through varying parameters.

The investigation on organoleptic study of aerial powder of Vernonia patula ndicated the characters like colour, odour and taste. The colour of the aerial powder showed deep green colour. The taste and odour of the aerial powders were also tested. The taste is slightly bitter and on analysis the aerial powder gives a characteristic odour (Table 1).

The aerial powders are treated with various chemicals exhibited various colours in the UV light. When the powder was treated with aqueous 1 N NaOH and 50% H₂SO₄ the aerial powder exhibited brown and yellowish green colours in UV light and the results are depicted in (Table 2).

When the leaf powders were treated with chemicals like FeCl₃, HCl, HNO₃, picric acid, NH₃, NaOH+methanol, Iodine solution, etc various shades of brown , light yellow, Reddish brown ,yellow, yellowish green, ,light brown etc colours were obtained (Table 3) ^[8].

Pharmaceutical preparation derived from natural resources such as vegetables often contain compounds that contribute the antimicrobial defense systems and apparently play a role in the protection against degenerative diseases.

CONCLUSION:

The results of organoleptic study offer a scientific basis for the traditional use of Vernonia patula which possess characters like green, characteristic odour, slightly bitter taste. The leaf powders when treated with various chemicals exhibited various colours in the UV light. The aerial part of the Vernonia patula has been tested for the identification of the chemical group present in that plant. It has been found that Reducing sugars, Steroids, Alkaloids, Glycosides, Tannins and Gums were present.

REFERENCES:

1. Reddy, K.J. (2004): Medicinal plant research scenario in India, Info concepts India Inc., pp.25-28.

2. Dubey, N.K., Kumar, R. and Tripathi, P. (2004): Global promotion of herbal medicine: India’s opportunity, Current Science, 86(1), pp.37-41.

3. Gaikwadi, S.S., Vadlamudi, V.P., Waghmaee, S.P., Maral, V.J., Ranteke, V.D. and Dhok, A.P. (2003): Phytochemical analysis of aqueous extract of few medicinal plants, PKV. Res. J., 27(1), pp.91-92.

4. Gaikwadi, S.S., Vadlamudi, V.P., Waghmaee, S.P., Maral, V.J., Ranteke, V.D. and Dhok, A.P. (2003): Phytochemical analysis of aqueous extract of few medicinal plants, PKV. Res. J., 27(1), pp.91-92.

5. Jackson, B.P. and Snowdown, D.W. (1968): Powdered vegetable drugs, Cheer Chil Ltd., London, pp.25.

6. Kokoshi, G.J., Kokoshi, J.R. and Sharma, F.J. (1958): Fluorescence of powdered vegetable drugs under ultra violet radiation, J. Amer. Pharm. Assn., 38(10), pp.715-717.

7. Chase, C.R. and Pratt, R.F. (1949): Fluorescence of powdered vegetable drugs with particular reference to the development of systems of identification, J. American Pharm. Assoc., 38, pp.324-333.

8.. Pandey, H.C., Dixit, R.S. and Sharma, H.P. (1984): Addition to the Pharmacognosy of Kalimulri (Curculigo orchioides), Bull. Med. Ethnobot. Res., 5(1-2), pp. 55-56.

Received on 16.04.2012 Accepted on 16.06.2012

Asian J. Pharm. Res. 2(3): July-Sept. 2012; Page 94-96