Phytochemical Analysis of Selected Medicinal Pslants from Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh

The objective of the present investigation is to appraise the qualitative and quantitative phytochemical analysis, DPPH and Hydroxyl radical scavenging activity along with a total antioxidant capacity of water extract obtained from six medicinal plants, i.e., Acalypha alnifolia, Caesalpinia bonduc, Carissa spinarum, Commiphora caudata, Moringa concanensis and Terminalia tomentosa. The phytochemical analysis of the six medicinal plants water extracts revealed total phenolic content (TPC) in the range of 27.77 to 3.35 GAE mg/g dwt. The highest TPC is present in A. alnifolia and the lowest is noticed in T. tomentosa. The total flavonoid content is present in between 1.68 to 1.48 QE mg/g dry weight and a higher amount of flavonoid content was observed in A. alnifolia and lowest present in C. bonduc. Antioxidant activity results of the six medicinal plants showed that the highest total antioxidant capacity was observed in Carissa spinarum and lowest in T. tomentosa. DPPH method was used to know the antioxidant capacity of aqueous extract of the six medicinal plants. Among the tested plants A. alnifolia, Carissa spinarum and Moringa concanensis strongly reduced DPPH purple color by expressing ~80% as maximum inhibition. DPPH was strongly inhibited by T. tomentosa (IC50 value 25 μg/ml). Hydroxyl radical was strongly (~96%) inhibited by T. tomentosa and lowest IC50 value was expressed by A. alnifolia (36.4 μg/ml). The study results indicate that all six medicinal plants are rich sources of natural antioxidant components.