I have tried to screen various phytochemicals of different plants leaves sample with antimicrobial property. I have tried aqueous extract of plants. But i have doubt whether sample is actually showing all of phytochemicals present in plant sample. How to screen whole of alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids or phenolics present in the plant sample ?
In my research, I identified the phytochemicals by screening method using aqueous, ethanol and methanol. I found that methanol gave a good extraction compared to others.
Thin layer Chromatography (TLC), High performance liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Gas Chromatography mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance(NMR) can be used to analyze and identify the phytochemicals present in the extract.
first and foremost, the phytochemical screening of a plant varies depending on the type of extraction carried out. if you are using the same plant, for example, you expect to have the same constituent depending on the solvent being used. You said you used an aqueous extract of plants, right? Which solvent did you use to prepare the aqueous extract? Please note that Aqueous extract usually contains higher polar solvents because, in the preparation of the solution for extraction, you are adding water to a certain ratio of solvent to water. Mostly, the ideal ratio is 70:30, i.e., solvent 70 and water 30 %. When it comes to the issue of alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, and phenolics, using standard methods such as the Evans and Tresa method, you can check if these phytochemicals are present or not; this is qualitative phytochemical screening. Sometimes we get false positives when we screen for alkaloids in a plant material, so it is best to do a specific extraction for alkaloids and then carry out qualitative phytochemical screening on it to confirm if they are present. I can refer you to one or two of my articles in which I carried out qualitative and quantitative phytochemical screening of a plant.
-Dauda G, Ali BH, Muhammed SY, Muhammad MG, Ismail AM, Muhammad MA, Hassan HS. 2023. Qualitative and quantitative phytochemical profiling of ethnomedicinal folklore plant-Globimetula oreophila. J. Curr. Biomed. Res. 3, 1407-1426.
-Dauda G, Haruna AK, Musa AM, Hassan B, Mohammed IM, Magaji MG. 2016. In-vivo antimalarial activity of ethanol leaf extract of Globimetula oreophila (Hook. F) Danser Azadiracchta Indica. Biol. Environ. Sci. J. Trop. 13, 55–59.
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