Abstracto

Phytochemical Investigation of Fermented Leaves of Cassia Obtusifolia Linn.

A. N. Mishra and M. H. Ansari

The chemical composition of the methylene chloride extract of the fermented leaves of Cassia obtusifolia legume was analysed for the first time by GC and GC/MC. The major components are found to be aliphatic acids and identified as hexonic acid (26%), palmitic acid (10.4) and valeric acid (6.3%) with lesser amounts of p-ethyl phenol (17.2%) and p-methylphenol (14%). Examination of the protein fraction from leaves indicated 20.3% in the crude leaves and 12.9% in the fermented leaves. Moreover this traditional legume had a high content of potassium and calcium element.