Qualitative tests for preliminary phytochemical screening: An overview

Abstract

Medicinal plants have been used in the treatment of various diseases as they possess potential pharmacological activities including antineoplastic, antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, analgesics, anti-diabetic, anti-hypertensive, antidiarrheal and other activities. Phytoconstituents individually or in the combination, determine the therapeutic value of a medicinal plant. Alkaloids, flavonoids, phenolics, tannins, saponins, steroids, glycosides, terpenes etc. are some of the important phytochemicals with diverse biological activities. The pharmacological activity of a plant can be predicted by the identification of the phytochemicals. Currently, phytochemicals are determined by various modern techniques, but the conventional qualitative tests are still popular for the preliminary phytochemical screening of plants.