Phytochemical analysis of Caesalpinia bonduc (L.) Roxb. seeds and commercially available seed powder by FTIR and GC-MS techniques

Abstract BACKGROUND: Caesalpinia bonduc (L.)Roxb. is a popular medicinal plant widely distributed in India and some of the other tropical countries. It has been used in various systems of medicines such as Ayurveda, Siddha, and Homeopathy since ages for its therapeutic potential. The present study aimed to analyze, compare, and isolate the phytochemical compounds present in the commercially available Caesalpinia bonduc (L.)Roxb. herbal formulation and naturally available Caesalpinia bonduc (L.)Roxb. seeds. METHODS: The three different seed samples namely: commercially available Caesalpinia bonduc (L.) Roxb seed powder (S1), commercially available seeds (S2), and Caesalpinia bonduc (L.) Roxb. seeds collected from Alagar Hills (S3) were extracted by means of the cold maceration method using various solvents. Preliminary phytochemical screening for alkaloids, proteins, terpenoids, triterpenoids, flavonoids, amino acids, phenols, tannins, and saponins was carried out using standard methods. Fourier transform infra-red and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (FTIR and GC-MS) spectroscopic analysis were also carried out. RESULTS: The preliminary screening revealed the presence of more phytochemicals in ethanolic extracts of the three samples S1, S2, and S3. The qualitative analysis revealed that S3 (naturally available Caesalpinia bonduc (L.) Roxb. seeds collected from Alagar hills, Madurai) has more phytocompounds. Comparison of FTIR spectra using Pearson’s correlation analysis indicated that the three samples were nearly identical to each other. GC-MS results of S3 indicated the presence of 50 peaks, of which 23 compounds were identified. CONCLUSION: As the naturally available seeds (S3) contain more phytocompounds than the commercially available seed powder (S1 and S2), they were further analyzed through FTIR combined with Pearson’s correlation analysis, which clearly discriminated the commercial and collected samples and acted as an effective tool for quality control.