BIOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF FLOWERS OF Vinca major, A MEDICINAL WEED PLANT OF HILLY AREAS OF PAKISTAN

Vinca major L. is an evergreen perennial weed of family Apocynaceae, growing naturally in hilly areas of Hazara region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Flowers of this weed were collected from Khanspur, Ayubia during June 2021, shade dried and extracted in pure methanol for two weeks. After filtration, the extract was analyzed by GC-MS for identification of possible bioactive compounds. α-Amyrin was the major compounds (32.49%) followed by lup-20(29)-en-3-ol, acetate, (3β)- (25.72%). Moderately abundant compounds included γ-sitosterol (8.78%), β-amyrone (7.25%), cyclohexane, 1,3,5-triphenyl- (7.01%), olean-12-en-3-ol, acetate, (3β)- (5.68%), and n-hexadecanoic acid (3.18%). Some of the identified compounds have various important biological properties including anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anticancer, antimalarial, antioxidant, antidiabetic, antitumor etc.