Abstract

Neelofar Khanam* and G. K. Sharma

ABSTRACT

Plant-derived medicines are the most widely used medicines in the world today. The use of herbs and plants as first medication is practiced universally. Every culture on earth, through written or oral tradition, has relied on the vast variety of natural chemistry found in healing plants for their therapeutic properties. Nearly 5.1 billion people worldwide employ natural plant-based remedies as their primary medicines for both acute and chronic health problems. Plants with therapeutic potential may be defined as any plant that can be put to culinary and/or medicinal use. Aloe vera L. has been used for medicinal purposes in several cultures for millennia: Greece, Egypt, India, Mexico, Japan, and China. The products prepared from Aloe leaves have multiple properties such as emollient, purgative, antibacterial, antioxidant, antifungal and antiseptic. Present investigation was done to study the quantitative and spectral analysis (GC-MS) for medicinally important phytochemicals (especially antimicrobials including antibacterial as well as antifungal agents) present in inner gel ethyl acetate extracts from in vivo and in vitro regenerated Aloe vera L. The GC-MS analysis of ethyl acetate extracts of inner gel from in vivo and in vitro regenerated Aloe vera L. showed the presence of various secondary metabolites such as phenolics, alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, saponins and steroids. Such secondary metabolites from plant sources have been reported to be potent antimicrobial agents.