Preparation of medicinally active extracts and phytochemical characterisation of phytoconstituents from medicinal plants.

Medicinal plants contain many bioactive compounds that are often hosted in medicinally active extracts generated from their various parts. The quest for reliable products from medicinal plants escalated in recent years as an answer to emerging health complications and the much-needed sufficient scientific backing that is dependent on proper preparation and characterisation principles of active extracts. This study described the Soxhlet and the maceration methods that are used to process extracts from the inert materials of medicinal plants using appropriate biocompatible solvents, the phytochemical screening assays, and TLC, UV spectrometry, FT-IR, and GC-MS techniques used in phytochemical studies. These techniques are crucial in studies that are meant to explore the active components of medicinal plants and their relative pharmacological effects. This information can be used as a guide when formulating effective yet less toxic plant-derived drugs and provide opportunities to upgrade while reducing further complexity in phytochemical studies.