Lalrinzuali K, Vabeiryureilai M and Ganesh Chandra J
Mizoram is hot spot of plant biodiversity and treasure for several medicinal plants. The elders of Mizoram use several plants for medicinal purposes and treatment of many human diseases. The present study was undertaken to document the ethnomedicinal uses of twenty plants and analyse their phytochemical constituents. The leaves of Ageratum conyzoides Linn. (Family: Compositae), Ananas cosmosus (L) Merr), Blumea balsamifera DC, Blumea lanceolaria Roxb., Cannabis sativa Linn., Carica papaya Linn., Clerodendrum colebookianum Walp., Dillenia pentagyna Roxb., Dysoxylum gobara Buch.-Ham, Eryngium foetidium Linn., Hedyotes scandens Roxb., Helicia excelsa Roxb., Mikania micranta Kunth. Mimosa pudica Linn, Polygonum chinanse Linn, Smilax ovalifolia Roxb., stem bark of Oroxylum indicum Vent., Schima wallichii (DC) Korth. and the whole plant of Callicarpa arborea Roxb., and Centella asiatica Linn., were dried and powdered. The alkaloid, flavonoid, cardiac glycoside, saponin, tannin, triterpenoid and phlobatannin contents in all these plants were estimated using standard methods. It was observed that all twenty plants contained alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins and tannins. The cardiac glycosides were present in all plants except B. lanceolaria, C. sativa, and C. bookenium.
