Identification and isolation of phytochemical constituents from the Syzygium cumini (L.) Skeels

The development of various drugs from medicinal plants are based on its phytochemical and pharmacological approaches for curing different diseases, therefore, various plants are recognized in the pharmaceutical industries for their broad structural diversity and wide range of pharmacological activities. These phytochemicals compounds are used as sources of direct medicinal agents or can serve as a raw material base for elaboration of more complex semi-synthetic chemical compounds. Since there is very minimal or no side effects, the need of looking inwards to search for herbal medicinal plants with the aim of validating the medicinal use and subsequently isolation and characterization of compounds becomes important which can be added to the potential list of drugs. The present study deals with the extraction of active compounds from the seeds of Jambolan plant and qualitative analysis of the phytochemicals using GCMS. The major constituents identified in the extract were gamma-sitosterol, cholest-4-ene-3-one, humulene, caryophyllene, alpha-santalol, campesterol, globulol, eicosane, azulene, trans-sesquisabinene, diosgenin, heneicosane, beta tocopherol, carotol etc. Many other compounds were also identified as considered as low level. Out of which gamma-sitosterol is the main phytochemical having functional group of OH, which may be responsible for reducing the level of glucose in blood in curing diabetes. This preliminary study gives an idea to isolate the major active constituents present in the seed of the plant and also helps to develop potential phar­macologically active compounds in therapeutic use of various ailments including diabetes.