Abstract

The objective of the present investigation was aimed to reveal the inte-specific variation among the three Plumbago species viz., Plumbago zeylanica Linn, Plumbago auriculata Lam, Plumbago rosea Linn using preliminary phytochemical screening and TLC profiles. To identify the various phytoconstituents and functional groups present in the Plumbago species, the preliminary phytochemical analysis was carried out using Harborne et al., method. TLC chromatographic technique was used to predict the secondary metabolites presence in the screened extracts of Plumbago species based on the band formation. The preliminary phytochemical assay reported the presence and absence of thirteen different compounds in varied degree among these ethanolic extract of all the three Plumbago species showed maximum number of eight compounds.  TLC profiling of the extracts of Plumbago depicted the presence phenol and steroid in different range of band formation. Among all the plant extracts chloroform and ethanolic extract reported maximum number of spots compared to all the other extracts. These techniques paved a way to predict and compare the phytoconstituents present in all the three selected Plumbago species which can be used for further medicinal properties.