38PHYSICO-CHEMICAL STANDARDIZATION AND PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING OF POTENTIAL MEDICINAL HERB: VETIVERIA ZIZANIOIDES (ROOTS)Vetiveria zizanioides L. Nash is commonly known as the Khas-Khas, Khasor Khusgrass in India, is a perennial grass with thick fibrous adventitious roots which are aromatic. The roots of Vetiveria zizanioides, used in curing different types of diseases like bronchitis, foul ulcers, sting bites, burn, inflammation, fungal infections and rheumatism. Herbal drug standardization is an essential step in order to assess the quality of drugs, based on the concentration of their active principle, physical and chemical standards. The present work attempts to evaluate the physicochemical and preliminary phytochemical studies on the roots of Vetiveria zizanioides(Linn.) familyPoaceae. The herbal standardization was carried out on the basis of organoleptic properties, physical characteristics, and physico-chemical properties. Physicochemical parameters including ash values, extractive values, moisture content were evaluated. Preliminary phytochemical studies of the powdered fruit drug revealed the presences of alkaloids, flavanoides, phytosterols, tannins, saponin, essential oils, proteins and carbohydrates. Thin layer chromatographic studies also had been done on different extracts. The total ash, acid insoluble ash and water soluble ash were found to be 6.33, 4.83 and 0.66% w/w respectively. The alcohol and water soluble extractive values (cold) are 15.46, 14.20%w/w respectively. The pH of 1 and 10% aqueous solution was found to be 4 and 6.2 respec tively. Various morphological characteristics were also reported.snigdha2112@gmail.comResearch412014Vetiveria zizanioides,Khus,Standardization,Phytochemical,Physico-chemical,TLCSnigdha Mishra,Satish Kumar Sharma,Aleza Rizvi ,Abhineet ChowdharyDepartment of Pharmacology,Sunder Deep Pharmacy College, Ghaziabad, India.,Department of Pharmacology,Sunder Deep Pharmacy College, Ghaziabad, India.,Department of Pharmacognosy, Integral University, Lucknow, India,Department of Pharmacology, Sunder Deep Pharmacy College, Ghaziabad, India