Shrivastava N, Datar M, Saxena R. C. Priliminary Physio-Chemical and Phyto-Chemical Characterization of Powdered Material of Cassia Fistula Fruit. Biomed Pharmacol J 2010;3(1)

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Manuscript received on :January 05, 2010
Manuscript accepted on :February 07, 2010
Published online on: 21-11-2015

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Neeta Shrivastava¹, Manoj Datar¹ and R. C. Saxena²

¹Samrat Ashok Technological Institute, Vidisha India.

²Pest Control and Ayurvedic Drug Research Laboratory, S.S.L. Jain College, Vidisha India.

Abstract

Cassia fistula Linn is used extensively in various parts of the world against a wide range of ailments, the synergistic action of its metabolite production being most probably responsible for the plant’s beneficial effects. Its fruitpulp is used as mild laxative, against fevers, arthritis, nervous system diseases, all kinds of bleeding, such as hematemesis or hemorrhages, as well as cardiac conditions and stomach problems such as acid reflux.It has been reported as antibacterial, antifungal, with wound healing property, hepatoprotective activity, antioxidant activity, anti-inflammatory activity, anti-tumor activity and as an bioabsorption material. An attempt has been made to highlight the medicinal fruit through the pharmacognostic studies. Priminary identification of phytoconstituents was performed.

Keywords

Cassia fistula; medicinal plant; Pharmacological studies; phytochemical studies

Introduction

Many herbal remedies have been employed in various medical systems for the treatment and management of different diseases. Plants have played a significant role in maintaining human health and improving the quality of human life for thousands of years and have served humans well as valuable components of medicines. Today, we are witnessing a great deal of public interest in the use of herbal remedies.

Pharmacognostical analysis of medicinal herbs remains challenging issues for analytical chemists, as herbs are a complicated system of mixtures. Unlike synthetic drugs, herbal medicine is a complicated system of mixtures. Thus, the Methods of choice for identification of ‘botanical drug’ are mainly intended to obtain a characteristic fingerprint of a specific plant that represent the presence of a particular quality defining chemical constituents. The Golden Shower Tree is a flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to southern Asia, from southern Pakistan east through India to Myanmar and south to Sri Lanka. It is the national tree of Thailand. The Golden Shower Tree is a medium-sized tree growing to 10-20 m tall with fast growth. The leaves are deciduous. The flowers are produced in pendulous racemes. The fruit is a legume, 30-60 cm long and 1.5-2.5 cm broad, with a pungent odor and containing several seeds. The seeds are poisonous. In Ayurvedic medicine, Golden Shower Tree is known as aragvadha (“disease killer”). Its fruitpulp is used as mild laxative, against fevers, arthritis, vatavyadhi (nervous system diseases), all kinds of rakta-pitta (bleeding, such as hematemesis or hemorrhages), as well as cardiac conditions and stomach problems such as acid reflux. The root is considered a very strong purgative. It is widely used for its medicinal properties, its main property being that of a mild laxative suitable for children and pregnant women. It is also a purgative due to the wax aloin and a tonic (Satyavati and Sharma, 1989) and has been reported to treat many other intestinal disorders like healing ulcers (Biswaset al., 1973; Kirtikar and Basu, 1975). The plant has a high therapeutic value and it exerts an antipyretic and analgesic effect (Patel et al., 1965). Besides, it has been found to exhibit antinflammatory and hypoglycaemic activity (Datta and Kumar, 1985). In the Indian literature, this plant has been described to be useful against skin diseases, liver troubles, tuberculous glands and its use in the treatment of haematemesis, pruritus, leucoderm and diabetes has been suggested (Alamet al., 1990; Asolkaret al., 1992). C. fistula extract is used as an anti-periodic agent and in the treatment of rheumatism (Biswaset al., 1973; Kirtikar and Basu, 1975) and the leaf extract is also indicated for its anti-tussive and wound healing properties(Bhaktaet al., 1998a,b). It has been concluded that plant parts could be used as a therapeutic agent in the treatment of hypercholesterolaemia partially due to their fibre and mucilage content (El-Saadanyet al., 1991). There are reports indicating its antibacterial activity against a wide spectrum of bacteria namely E. coli, Bacillus mycides, Bacillus subtilis, Mycobacterium smegmatis, Klebsiellaaerogenes, Pseudomonas aerogenesand Proteus vulgaris (Perumalet al., 1998). Antitumor (Gupta et al., 2000), hepatoprotective (Bhaktaet al., 1999), antifertility (Yadav and Jain, 1999), antioxidant (Chamindaet al., 2001; Siddhurajuet al., 2002; Luximon-Rammaet al., 2002) properties of C. fistula as well as its actions on the central nervous systems (Mazumdaret al., 1998) and inhibitory effect on leukotriene biosynthesis (Sunil Kumar and Müller, 1998) have been suggested. Besides its pharmacological uses, the plant extract is also recommended as a pest and disease control agents in India (Jaipalet al., 1983; Sharma and Basandrai, 1999; Raja et al., 2000). Thus C. fistula is well anchored in its traditional uses and has now found widespread acceptance across the world. The pods of cassia fistula are imported from the east Indies from the west  indies and from South America. Their pulp is reddish –black , with a sweetish taste. Those pods yield the most pulp which are heavy and do not rattle when shaken. This paper reports the preliminary phytochemical & physiochemical investigation of powdered pod of cassia fistula.

Table 1: Result of physo-chemical parameters for fruit of Cassia fistula

Material and Methods

Herbal medicine is a triumph of popular therapeutic diversity. Almost in all the traditional medicine, the medicinal plants play a major role and constitute the backbone for the same. In order to make sure the safe use of these medicines, a necessary first step is the establishment of standards of quality, safety and efficacy. The pods of cassia fistula linn were collected from the Botanical garden. The dried pods marcerated   and packaged in a plastic container. The powdered material is subjected to physio-chemical studies such as Total ash, water soluble ash, acid insoluble ash, sulphated ash, alcohol soluble extractive, water soluble extractive, ether soluble extractive, moisture content, refractive index  &phyto-chemical studies such as alkaloid, flavanoid, saponin, glycosides, terpenoides, carotenoids, tannins, steroids, anthraquinone, fixed oil, volatile oil, fatty oil, carbohydrates, protein, lipid, starch, lignin) Physiochemical Investigation is performed according to official procedure under pharmacopocial guidelines. (Pharmacopoeial laboratory for indian medicines protocol for testing: Ayurvedic, siddha &unani medicines) & phytochemical parameters are determined as described by Trease and Evans (2002).

Table 2: Result of phyto-chemical investigation for fruit of Cassia fistula

Conclusion

Standardization of herbal drugs is a topic of great concern. They are subject to variability as derived from heterogeneous sources. This variability can have both advantage and disadvantages effect. The main disadvantages are that the activity of the material may vary and that inferior material may be produced. Cassia fistulais an ayurvedic herb known for its antiarthritic, antihelminthic, hepatoprotective, antispasmodic activity and various medicinal properties. So the efforts were made to provide the scientific data to standardize the plant material for further studies.

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