PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING, PROXIMATE AND ELEMENTAL ANALYSIS OF STEM BARKS OF Cassia fistula Linn

*Koushik Saha, Tarique Ahmed Nishan, Md. Abu Bakar Siddique, Mehedi Hasan, Md Farid Uddin and Md. Awlad Hossain

ABSTRACT

Different parts of Cassia fistula Linn are utilized in ayurveda medicine and homemade cures for common illnesses. This research work was aimed at screening the phytochemicals in different solvent extracts, proximate composition and analysis the quantity of different essential elements of the stem barks of C. fistula Linn using standard methods. From phytochemical screening, different types of natural compounds such as steroids, terpenoids, flavonoids, phenolic compounds, coumarines, quinones, saponins, tannins and carbohydrates were confirmed in the extracts. The result of the analysis revealed that steroids, terpenoids and flavonoids were present in all the extracts but alkaloids were not found in any of the extracts. Proximate analysis was carried out on the barks of C. fistula which showed that it has 11.37% moisture content, 84.99% dry matter and 3.64% ash content. Meanwhile, using atomic absorption spectroscopic technique, 14 elements in total were identified after analyzing the micro and macro elements. From the analysis, it was observed that the plant showed higher concentration of Ca, K, Mg and lower concentration of Cd, Pb, Cr and As. The most significant part of this analysis was that the concentration of essential elements in the plant is high and the concentration of toxic heavy elements is very low within the tolerance limit, which signifies that plant is safe for the medicinal use.

Keywords: Phytochemical Screening, Proximate composition, Elemental analysis, Stem bark, Cassia fistula Linn.