PHYTOCOGNOSTICAL AND PRELIMINARY PHYSICOCHEMICAL EVALUATION OF THE LEAVES PARTS OF PUNICA GRANATUM (NORTH REGION)

Smriti Dubey, *Krishanu Samanta and Anil Kumar

ABSTRACT

Herbal plants are huge sources of medicinal importance, prevent the different disease or maintain healthy life. Plant produces primary metabolites for their basic survival and secondary metabolites for their ecological, taxonomical and biochemical differentiation and diversity. Pomegranate (Punica granatum) belonging family Lythraceae are broadly used in traditional system of medicine throughout different part of India. It is a native plant of Caucasian and northern Africa. It has great medicinal importance like fruit, bark, leave and roots are used worldwide as taenicides, owing to alkaloids, and treatment of diarrhea and oral and genital lesions, owing to tannins and astringency. The study of diseases and their treatment and prevention are important part of our ancient time worldwide. The knowledge of medicinal plants must have been accumulated in the course of many centuries. Herbal medicine prepare different part of plant are used. The seeds contain oil which contains not only the steroidal estrogen, estrone and non-steroidal phytoestrogens including the comesten, coumestrol, and the isoflavones, genistein and daidzein. Both the juice and the oil contain numerous and diverse bioflavonoid, which have been shown to be both potently antioxidant and inhibitory of one or both of the enzymes cyclooxygenase (catalyzing arachidonic acid to prostaglandins) and lipoxygenase (catalyzing arachidonic acid to leukotrienes). it is also use in various skin disease, having a antimicrobial activity. Extracts of the rinds have been shown to be bactericidal, antiviral, antitumor and use of pomegranates in the treatment of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) owing to their antioxidant properties. The main aims of this research are Preliminary physico-phytochemical & phyto-cognostical evaluation of the leaves parts. The current study deals with the characterization of morphological features, determination of physical constant such as the total ash value are 23.01%, Loss of weight drying was 8.1%, foaming index>100, swelling index were 0.2cm, the percent yield for Methanol 16.61%, and aqueous 18.21%.

Keywords: Pomegranate, Lythraceae; Punica granatum; Total ash; swelling index.