Abstract

The present study mainly focuses on the establishment of pharmacognostical standards ofIndigofera barberi stem. I. barberi is a small diaceous shrub which belongs to the family Fabaceae and is distributed in India. The whole plant is medicinally reported or claimed to cure several diseases in traditional system of medicine folklore in particularl. This study aimed for the pharmacognostic study of the stem has been carried to establish the pharmacognostical standards. The parameters selected were microscopical studies, proximate analysis, fluorescence analysis, behavior of powder drug with different chemical reagents and preliminary phytochemical screening. In physico-chemical evaluation, the ash values and extractive values were studied. Fluorescence analysis performed showed a wide range of fluorescence colours for the crude powder as well as the extracts. Behavior of powder drug with different chemical reagents showed the different colors. The powder of I. barberi was successively extracted with petroleum ether, benzene, chloroform, ethylacetate, ethanol and water. In the ethanol was the identification of the best solvent because preliminary phytochemical screening carried out for ethanol extract gave maximum chemical constituents and percentage yield. Phytochemical tests performed identified different chemical constitutions like flavonoids, steroids, cardiac glycosides, phenols and tannins.

Key words: Indigofera barberi, proximate analysis, microscopical, fluorescence, ethanolic extract, preliminary phyto chemical screening.