Tests for Alkaloids:- In testing for Alkaloids, Fafowora (2008) explains that about

0.5g of each extract will be stirred with 5ml of I per cent aqueous hydrochloric
acid on a water bath; 1ml of the filtrate is to be treated with a few drops of
mayer's reagent and a second 1ml portion is to be treated the same way with
Dragendorff's reagent.

Turbidity of precipitation with either of those reagents was taken as preliminary

evidence for the presence of alkaloids in the extract being evaluated (Harborne,
1973; Evans, 2002). Some laboratories also use Wagner's reagent, picric acid
solution or tannic acid solution in place of or in addition to, the two reagents
mentioned about (Persiones and Quimby, 1967).

A confirmatory test designed to remove non-alkaliodal compounds capable of

eliciting "false-positive" reactions is to be carried out as fallous with all
extracts which give preliminary positive test for alkaloids.

A modified form of the thin-layer chromatography (TLC) method described by

farnsworth and Euler (1962) is to be used. One gramme of the extract will be
treated with 40 per cent calcium hydroxide until the extract is distinctly alkaline
to litmus paper, and then extract twice with 10ml portions of chloroform. The
extracts are to be combined and concentrated in vacuo to about 5ml. The chloroform
extract is then spotted on thin-layer plates. Four different solvent systems (of
widely varying polarity) are to be used to develop each plant extract. The presence
of alkaloids in the developed chromotograms will therefore be detected by spraying
the chromatograms with freshly prepared Dragendorff's spray reagent.

A positive reaction on the chromatograms (indicated by an orange or darker-coloured

spot against a pale yellow background) is confirmatory evidence that the plant
extract contained an alkaloid.