PHYTOCHEMICAL EVALUATION OF CARICA PAPAYA EXTRACTS

Ritu Saini, Aman Mittal* and Vaibhav Rathi

ABSTRACT

Carica papaya Linn. (family- Caricaceae) also known as Papaya is a tropical fruit cultivated on a large scale in India and other parts of the world. Not only the fruit, but the whole plant parts possess numerous medicinal properties. It provides many health benefits due to the high content of phyto-constituents present in it. Papaya possesses numerous pharmacological activities like anti-inflammatory, anti-hypersensitivity, hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic, free radical scavenging, wound healing, antitumour, antibacterial, antifungal, diuretic, uterotonic, anti-sickling, anthelmintic, anti-amoebic, antifertility, etc.[1,2,3] The present study focuses on the pharmacognostic evaluation of ripened Carica papaya fruit extract. The fruit pulp was collected and dried from the ripe fruits. The dried fruit pulp was extracted successively with petroleum ether, chloroform, ethanol and hydroalcohol by Soxhlation. Dry extract namely CPEAF, CPEE, CPXE, CPHAE, CPCE and CPPEE, thus obtained were analyzed for presence of different phytoconstituents.

Keywords: Carica papaya; Tropical; Free radical; Pharmacognostic; Soxhlation.