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diethyl ether extracts. Diethyl ether showed the presence of phytochemicals such as
flavonoids, phenols, and tannins.
Preliminary phytochemical analysis helped to identify therapeutic compounds in
plants. In this study, secondary metabolites such as saponin, alkaloids, tannins, phenol,
flavonoids and steroids were present in different extracts of Myristica fragrans Houtt. fruit
which is in agreement with the studies carried out by Assa et al., (2014); Rancy and
Krishnakumari (2015).
Different phytochemicals have been found to possess a wide range of medicinal
properties, which may help in protection against various diseases (Gayathri and Anuradha,
2015). As plants and their products are known to posses various secondary metabolites and
also posses several lead phytochemical constituents such as alkaloids, steroids, tannins,
flavonoids, saponins, phenolics and glycosides were identified from the plants. Plants based
natural constituents can be derived from any part of the plants like bark, leaves, flowers,
roots, seed etc. The use of plant plants extracts and phytochemical both with known
antimicrobial properties can be of great significance in therapeutic treatments (Saxena and
Patil, 2012).
Table: 1 Phytochemical present in Seed coat extract of Myristica fragrans Houtt.
Solvent Extracts
Phytochemicals Ethyl Diethyl
Ethanol Acetone Benzene Aqueous
acetate ether
Alkaloids - ++ + - - +
Flavonoids ++ - + - + +
Phenols - + - ++ + +
Saponins + ++ + + - -
Steroids +++ + ++ - - -
Terpenoids - - - - - +
Tannins + - ++ ++ + -
Glycosides +++ + +++ ++ - -
Reducing
- - - - - -
sugars
Proteins - - - - - -
(+++) - High (++) - Medium (+) - Low (-) - Absent
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