Annamacharya College of Pharmacy, Rajampet 516126, Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

Phenolic compounds are secondary plant metabolites and the classes of phytochemicals have been isolated from Cynodon dactylon species. Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. (Fam: Graminae) is commonly known as “Doob” in India. It is used as folk medicine in different countries as anti‐inflammatory, anticystitis, antihypertensive, antiviral, hypoli- pidemic, antihysteria, antipsychotic and antigonorrheal infection. Cynodon dactylon plant was sun dried for 5 days and pulverized. About 500g of the powder was percolated in 1L of distilled water containing 1%w/v polyethylene glycol (PEG 10,000) to prevent mould growth. The mixture was allowed to stand for 24hrs, after which the mate- rials were filtered. The filtrate was freeze dried to obtain the solid residue. The extracted crude drug powder was subjected to various phytochemical tests and phenolic compounds were identified. By UV scanning at 275±1nm the natural isolated compound present in the selected plant material was found to be o-coumaric acid when com- pared with standard specifications. These results were further confirmed by identification of constituents by HPTLC and isolation by column or flash chromatography and confirmed by UV scanning in future.