Abstract

The present study deals with the extraction and quantification of phytochemicals, which play a key role in the pharmaceutical world. In this article, we focused on the study of plant secondary metabolites and analyzed ethanolic and methanolic extracts of bark and roots of two species of Ixora using the highperformance thin layer chromatography technique. Alcoholic extracts of bark and root of both the plants revealed the presence of alkaloids, terpenoids, glycosides, phenols, saponins, sterols, tannins, etc., but both extracts were devoid of flavonoids and coumarins. Analysis of alkaloid content revealed the highest amount of total alkaloid content in the methanolic extract of roots of Ixora coccinea (146 mg/ gm) followed by the methanolic extract of bark of Ixora coccinea (138 mg/g). The lowest total alkaloid content was observed in the methanolic extract of bark of Ixora barbata (64 mg/g). Both ethanolic, as well as methanolic extracts of Ixora coccinea, showed higher amounts of alkaloid content when compared to Ixora barbata in similar solvents. As per high-performance thin layer chromatography analysis, the highest amount of camptothecin was recorded in ethanolic extract of root of Ixora coccinea (117 μg/ml) followed by ethanolic extract of bark of Ixora barbata (64.43 μg/ml). The lowest amount of camptothecin was observed in methanolic extract of bark of Ixora coccinea (12.64 μg/ml). The results obtained from the present high-performance thin layer chromatography analysis also revealed that the above-mentioned selected plants are a source of a number of other phytoconstituents. This is the first reported study on the high-performance thin layer chromatography analysis of Ixora barbata. The study includes quantification of camptothecin compound in both methanolic and ethanolic extracts of Ixora barbata for which there are no previously published reports.