Abstract
Author(s): D. Agilandeswari
BSTRACT TLC due to its simplicity, accuracy, cost effectiveness and rapidity, is often used as an alternative to other chromatographic techniques for quantifying plant products. Nymphaea stellata Willd. (Ns) of the family Nymphaeceae is an important and well-known medicinal plant in the Ayurvedic and Siddha systems of medicine with a wide range of pharmacological activities. Since the complete phytochemical profile was unavailable, comparative TLC was used to identify and quantify chemical constituents of Ns leaves. Brine shrimp lethality assay is a very useful bench-top method for drug discovery process. Hence methanolic extract, 50% methanolic extract, aqueous extract, unsaponified petroleum ether fraction of methanol extract (UPEFME), chloroform fraction of methanol extract (CFME) and the residual fraction of methanol extract (RFME) were screened along with the first timed identified oleanolic acid and betulinic acid. The amount of oleanolic acid and betulinic acid quantified from the leaves were 0.008186 %w/w and 0.078238 %w/w respectively. Oleanolic acid and aqueous extract showed LC50 of 120 and 2760 µg/ml respectively in brine shrimp lethality assay. As the polarity of the extracts increased the lethality also increased, suggesting the presence of polar toxic compounds.