Screening of few indigenous plants for the presence of phenols

Abstract: Plants produce a number of chemical compounds that are used in defence against different pest, and pathogens.(Prakash and Rao1986;1997;Charleston et al.,2004. Higher plants contain a number of secondary metabolites like Phenolics, flavonoid,quinines,tannins,essential oils, alkaloids, saponins and sterols. Tens of thousands of secondary products of plants have been identified and there are estimates that hundreds of thousands of such compounds exist. These secondary metabolites show biological activity, hence plants can be exploited for the discovery of various compounds having pesticidal properties. Among these secondary metabolites Phenols constitute one major group with potency in plant defence mechanism. Plants need phenolic compounds for pigmentation, growth, reproduction, resistance to pathogens and for many other functions. The increased interest in potential biological activity of phenols in plant defence mechanism has led to conduct the present study for the presence of phenolic compounds and their content in various locally available plants i.e Anona squamosa,Clytoria ternatae,Azdirachta indica,Abutilon indicum,Pongamia pinnata and Passiflora foetida with an aim to use these plants as nematicidal plants as phenols are known for reistance against nematodes in plants