A review on phytochemical investigation of Gymnema sylvestre leaves

Gymnema sylvestre is a plant included in Apocynaceae family and is located in many regions of Asia, Africa and Australia. It is known to have blood glucose lowering potential and, thus, is widely used in traditional and Ayurvedic systems of medicine. A scrutiny of literature revealed some notable pharmacological activities of the plant such as antidiabetic, antiobesity, hypolipidaemic, antimicrobial, free radical scavenging and anti-inflammatory. The phytoconstituents responsible for sweet suppression activity includes triterpene saponins known as gymnemic acids, gymnemasaponins, and a polypeptide, gurmarin. Efforts have been made to prepare gudmar dried extract. These extracts were subjected for preliminary qualitative analysis, quantitative estimation of terpenoides, alkaloids and various other compounds. The present review is an attempt to highlight the phytochemical screening as well as its extraction process. Also chromatographic studies gave the presence of different compounds which can be used in creating monograph for this species.