Phytochemistry of Ashtavarga-Rare Anti-Aging Medicinal Plants

The Ashtavarga is a vitality enhancing, revivifying of youthful condition, body nourishing, antioxidant and invigorating group of rare medicinal plants of Himalaya which are considered as best anti-aging herbs when taken as formulation called 'Chayavanprash'. Phytochemical analysis has proven to provide simple and reliable results with a small amount of plant part extract. It provides a valid phytochemical basis of identification and may be used as legitimate evidence of novelty. Compared to morphological results, phytochemical results are noteworthy because they are more reliable for identification. Among phytochemical studies, detection techniques like Sepbox, UV-VIS spectral scanning and GC/MS are useful for molecular mass characterization as these do not require prior information of the target compound particularly when we study rare spices which were rarely studied before. Preliminary phytochemical screening gives an idea about common phytochemicals present in plants.