Pharmacognostic Standardization and Quantitative Phytochemical Assessment of Euphorbia Fusiformis

Abstract

Background: Euphorbia fusiformis Buch is a rare medicinal geophyte used traditionally for liver, skin, inflammatory, and gastrointestinal disorders, yet reproducible quality-control data remain limited. Objective: To establish physicochemical and solvent-specific phytochemical characteristics of authenticated E. fusiformis material and quantify total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) in polarity-based fractions.
Methods: Authenticated material (voucher LH/PG/BOT-798) was shade-dried, milled through a No. 22 sieve, and extracted with solvents spanning non-polar to aqueous polarity. Pharmacognostic constants, solvent behaviour, and qualitative reactions for major metabolite classes were recorded. TPC was measured by the Folin-Ciocalteu method against gallic acid at 760 nm; TFC was estimated by the aluminium-chloride method against quercetin at 520 nm. Calibration data were re-fitted by ordinary least squares.
Results: Loss on drying, total ash, acid-insoluble ash, water-soluble ash, alcohol-soluble extractive, and water-soluble extractive were 11.06%, 6.98%, 0.70%, 6.10%, 9.20%, and 6.10% w/w, respectively. The gallic-acid and quercetin models were A = 0.05609C + 0.01093 (R² = 0.9914) and A = 0.002010C + 0.000067 (R² = 0.9977). The hydroalcoholic fraction showed the highest TPC (68.12 ± 2.23 mg GAE/g), whereas the intermediate-polarity fraction showed the highest TFC (45.49 ± 0.26 mg QE/g).
Conclusion: The results define a practical baseline for identity, purity, extraction behaviour, and phenolic/flavonoid standardization of E. fusiformis. Orthogonal chromatographic marker analysis is required before therapeutic or batch-release claims are made.