if we have a plant material with no literature on its pharmacology, what are the basic pharmacological screenings we can perform with limited equipments?
Mr. Kumar, first you have to clarify what do you want to know? There are many pharmacological evaluation methods like as, in vitro antibacterial,antifungal,antiviral,antiparasitic, antiapoptotic,antioxidant, anticoagulant etc test. So, for every outcome, there happens to be a different objective. Moreover, what does 'limited equipment' mean? Actually, pharmacological evaluation is a broad term. Even if you have sufficient lab supports, it takes a lot of toil for a pharmacologist to get on with a known plant let alone unknown one. Hence, you better find the feasibility of the work you are doing before something goes wrong. But to be hopeful, you can start with questionnaire survey of the local healers (kaviraj) and the elders of that specific region where you found that plant. They might provide you some insight on the future direction of your research work. Best of luck.
briefly you can use agar well diffusion method, you can see some of my in vitro publications for additional help.
First check for the active principles present in it .This will give you an insight of what may be the therapeutic use of the plant.Based on that you can survey the pharmacological ativity of the active principal present and you can carry out the activity related to the active principle present in it.After deciding the activity that can be made start with the simple invitro,insilico activity.If it works out than you can carry out cell line and invivo studies
You can go for phytochemical analysis of plant extract which is simple steps. If active components like antimicrobial compounds or therapeutic compounds are present then proceed for further analysis viz.HPLC, FTIR etc
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