Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of plants Extracts: Mucana prurita, Mesua ferrea, Punica granatum

Abstract

India has a rich culture of medicinal herbs and spices, including Ayurvedic, Unani, Siddha and other traditional
medicines but only very few have been studied chemically and pharmacologically for their potential medicinal value
The phyto-chemical investigation of a plant may involve authentification and extraction of the plant material;
separation and isolation of the constituents of pharmaceutical Interest, characterization of the isolated compound;
investigation of the biosynthetic pathway to particular compounds and the quantitative evaluation. The choice of
extraction procedure depends on the nature of the plant materials and the components to be isolated. The size
reduction of the dried plant materials is an important factor for extraction. If the particle size are too fine a solid cake
may be produced, which will affect the flow of menstrum and will result in the formation of „dry pockets‟ within
the body of the material. If the materials is too coarse then interstics are formed, which leads to a speedy percolation
of menstrum this can even lead to an incomplete extraction with a need of excessive volumes of metnstrum to
exhaust the marc. The composition of the drug or the nature of the drug i.e. hard or soft, thick or thin will affect the
degree of comminution need not to great. If the materials used are hard and woody, then the sized is required to be
greatly reduced while some of the substances like aloes or gum resin need only to be crushed. Materials to be
powdered roots, rhizomes, bark, corms, woods. There are five officials grade of powder. The medium course or the
moderately fine powders are most suitable for the purpose of extraction.