Phytochemistry of medicinal plant –Piper longum

Abstract

Medicinal plants constitute the main source of new pharmaceuticals and healthcare products. Plant based medicinal compounds is long established to be used as traditional treatment for innumerable human diseases from time immemorial in many parts of the world. Phytochemicals are responsible for medicinal activity of plants and these biochemicals are naturally occuring in the plants that have defense mechanisms and protect from various diseases.Their use has been multiplied through various researchers and application due to a number of side effects from use of synthetic drugs, antibiotics and high cost. In the present study, the dried parts of Piper longum was subjected to phytochemical, physicochemical and antimicrobial studies. Phytochemical analysis reveals maximum number of phytochemicals are present in piper longum chloroform leaves and fruit extracts compared to ethanol extract. Physico-chemical analysis showed that the plant contain appropriate amount of silica materials, contaminants and is less affected by microbial attack. Antimicrobial activity performed on bacterial strains also showed significant results. From this it is known that this medicinal plant is pharmaceutically important.