Careya arborea Roxb. (Family: Lecythidaceae) is commonly called as Slow match tree and is an important medicinal plant. Its different parts viz. bark, leaves and seeds have been reported to show many pharmacological activities. High-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) is a simple, fast and precise technique for the detection of phytochemicals present in the plant. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to characterize the phytochemical profile for various secondary metabolites using HPTLC for C. arborea bark, leaves and seeds extracts, which revealed the confirmation of these phytochemicals. The present study suggested that the bark contains all the classes of compounds tested namely alkaloids, anthracene derivatives, arbutin derivatives, bitter compounds, cardiac glycosides, coumarin derivatives, essential oils, flavonoids, lignans, pungent-tasting principles, saponins, triterpenes and valepotriates. Whereas, alkaloids are not detected in leaves, and alkaloids and arbutin derivatives are not detected in seeds.
Keywords: Bark; Careya arborea; HPTLC; Leaves; Phytochemical profile; Secondary metabolites; Seeds.