Phytochemical composition and in vitro antioxidant activity of Leucas aspera leaves Kaur Ramandeep, Kumar Navneet* Department of Biochemistry, School of Bioengineering and Biosciences, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab *Corresponding Author E-mail: nkg2203@gmail.com
Online published on 2 March, 2017. Abstract Free radicals are involved in the body in normal metabolism, but their excess may harm and contribute to various disease like cancer, diabetes, Parkinson's disease, cardiovascular problems, etc. Phytochemicals can play the role to scavenge these excess free radicals. In the present study, leaves of Leucus aspera were collected from Kollam in Kerala, and its methanolic extraction was prepared. Screening and quantification of phytochemicals and estimation of antioxidant potential of the plant extract were performed. Phytochemical screening showed the presence of flavonoids, phenols, saponins, carbohydrate, tannins, alkaloid and terpenoids. Phenol and flavonoid quantity was found to be 16 μg and 43.08 μg equivalents of gallic acid and quercetin per milligram of plant extract, respectively. Similarly, it was having total antioxidant activity and total reducing power as 43.1 μg and 41 μg equivalents of ascorbic acid per milligram of plant extract. The IC50 value for DPPH radical scavenging activity was found to be 20 μg as compared to ascorbic acid which was having IC50 as 9.34 IC50. It can be concluded that the collected plant leaves of L. aspera have various useful phytochemicals which could have contributed in showing the significant antioxidant activity. Top Keywords Leucas aspera, Antioxidant, free radicals, Medicinal plants, phytochemicals. Top |