FTIR analysis and evaluation of phytochemicals from various solvent extracts of Ocimum gratissimum L. and Ocimum sanctum L.

Abstract

The therapeutic potentiality of medicinal plants is attributed by the presence of a wide range of secondary metabolites or phytochemicals which will have various pharmacological activities. It is well known that every plant species possess complex mixture of bioactive compounds in which each component contributes to its overall bioactivity. The genus Ocimum, has long been acclaimed for their diversity and economic, nutritional, industrial and medicinal importance. The enormous information revealed by the ethnomedicinal applications of Ocimum species demands a scientific investigation into its chemical constituents. In the present study comparison of two Ocimum species, Ocimum gratissimum L. and O. sanctum L. were done in terms of phytochemical constituents and FT IR spectral analysis. Both Ocimum species showed variation in the presence of phytochemicals in different non polar to polar solvents extracts. FT-IR spectral analysis was attempted to analyze the functional groups and characteristic absorption bands & their corresponding functional groups revealed variations in fingerprint band features of Ocimum species. For O. gratissimum, the FTIR spectral peak starts at 3969.50 whereas in O. sanctum it was at 3967.57. The shared FT-IR regions between the species were 366.48, 489.92, 696.30, 1068.56, 1394.53, 2937.59 and 3728.40. Similarly, the unique bands for O. gratissimum were 1166.93 and 1512.19, while 1842.02 and 2397.52 represent that for O. sanctum. The FT-IR analysis revealed the presence of varied functional groups. Thus, the FT-IR spectra validated the presence of various phytochemicals in the plant.