PHYTOCHEMICAL STUDIES AND QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS BY TLC OF MURRAYA KOENIGII BARK EXTRACT

Murraya koenigii is a medium size, ever green plant which has been utilized as a source of food, medicine, and other agricultural purposes in different communities. Thus, the preliminary phytochemical analysis and TLC separation was done using methanol, n-hexane, and ethyl acetate(1:3:1), as solvent system while iodine vapour as spotting agent. The phytochemical screening of diethyl ether extracts of bark revealed the presence of carbohydrates , anthraquinones glycosides ,saponins ,flavanoids, and alkaloids, while chloroform extracts of bark revealed carbohydrates, tannins, saponins, and alkaloids, while acetone extracts of bark revealed the presence of carbohydrates, anthraquinones glycosides, flavanoids and alkaloids,while ethanol extracts of bark revealed the presence of carbohydrates, tannins, anthraquinones glycosides,s aponins, flavanoids and alkaloids.TLC separation showed (3) spots each of Diethyl Ether, Chloroform, Acetone, Ethanol from bark extracts. From our findings, it can be concluded that Murraya Koenigii contains some significant phytochemicals that can exhibit desired therapeutic activities such as Antioxidant, Anti-Microbial, Anti-Fungal, Anti-Diabetic, Anti-Ulcer and Cosmetic use. However, there is a need to conduct further Pharmaceutical Analysis on test extracts in order to establish these biomedical applications. Keywords: Thin Layer Chromatography, Murraya koenigii Bark, Phytochemical screening