Vol. 3, Issue 1, Part H (2017)

Abstract
Plants have been the basis of many traditional medicines throught the world for thousands of years and continue to provide new remedies to mankind. Plant is one of the richest source of bioactive compound. Holarrhena antidysenterica is a twining shrub belong to family, Apocynaceae its commonly known as kurchi in Hindi and ‘Conessi’ or ‘Tellicherry bark’ in English is a rasayan herb used in Indian system of medicine. The connessi tree is popular for its numerous medicinal properties and the seeds and bark of this tree have long been used in Ayurveda. The plant has been employed for long time in folklore therapy. Bark of Holarrhena antidysenterica is used in Ayurveda as an anti-microbial, anti inflammatory and analgesic (Jones, 1996, Cowan 1999, Krishnaraju et al., 2005). ‘Kurchi’ bark is an important traditional drug used in various ailments. The drug is astringent, anthelmintic, stomachic, antipyretic, tonic and is generally administered as an extract or decoction in amoebic dysentery and diarrhea. Bark is given either alone or with other astringent drugs in piles, colic, dyspepsia, chest infections and diuretics; also reported to be useful in skin diseases and spleen disorder. In this study aqueous extracts of the bark of Holarrhena antidysenterica were subjected to preliminary phytochemical screening which showed the presence of saponins, carbohydrates. Aqueous extracts of this tested plant contain medicinally important bioactive compound and it justified their use in the traditional medicines for the treatment of different disease. The main aim of the preposed study is to investigate the phytochemical screening of medicinal plant.