Evaluation of phyto-chemical quantification in Rheum australe D. Don from the Himalayan region of Himachal Pradesh, India

The pharmacological activities in plants are greatly influenced by four major phytoconstituents. The present study investigated the phytoconstituents content variations in rhizomes of Rheum australe D. Don, collected from sixteen different geographical locations of Himalayan region of Himachal Pradesh. It has been observed that alkaloids, phenolics, saponins and flavonoids were present in the rhizome of this species, and exhibited significant variation among different sources and ranged from 0.145% to 1.088%; 17.63 to 65.727 mg GAE/g; 0.92% to 2.81% and 1.869 to 9.148 mg quercetin equivalent/ g respectively for alkaloid, phenol, saponin and flavonoid compound, respectively. Several physiographic and edaphic factors may be responsible for the variation in contents of phytochemical constituents in rhizome of R. australe. The germplasm with high chemical contents can be selected as a superior germplasm, which can be further be mass multiplied for cultivation practice by the farming communities for agumentation of rural income.