Phytochemical Profiling of Bryum argenteum Hedw. and Dumortiera hirsuta (Sw.) Nees.

Aim: Bryophytes are the second largest group of land plants. This study involved phytochemical profiling on a liverwort representative from a primitive group and one moss specimen from an advanced group. Materials and Methods: The Powdered thallus of B. argenteum and D. hirsuta underwent successive solvent extraction based on polarity. The resulting crude extracts were subjected to preliminary qualitative and quantitative analysis. The phytochemical profiling was conducted using Thin Layer Chromatography. Results and Discussion: Both plants contain phenols, flavonoids, alkaloids, terpenoids, and tannins, according to their preliminary phytochemical profiles. The total phenolic concentration in B. argenteum is 24.90±0.12 mgGAE/g and in D. hirsuta is 26.70±0.25 mgGAE/g. TLC profiling with the mobile phase hexane: ethyl acetate: chloroform: formic acid (3:1:0.5:0.5 v/v/v/v) gives the highest separation. Among various solvent extracts of B. argenteum ethyl acetate shows the presence of 8 compounds having Rf of 0.16, 0.56, 0.70, 0.73, 0.76, 0.80, 0.83, 1.66 similarly there are 7 differentiated bands obtained from ethyl acetate extract of D. hirsuta with Rf values 0.73, 0.76, 0.63, 0.8, 0.46, 0.43 and 0.03. Every Rf represents a compound within the plant extracts. Conclusion: Thus the present investigation shows that these two plants contain various potential metabolites having different therapeutic values. Therefore, there is no need to neglect these tiny plants because they are a rich pool of medicinally important components.