Evaluation of Alysicarpus pubescens Y. W. Law for its phytochemical constituents and free radical scavenging activity

This study attempts to provide insights on phytocompounds and antioxidant efficacies of A. pubescens. The study primarily focused on estimation of phenolic content, flavonoid content and antioxidant capacity of different extracts of stem, leaf and inflorescence comparing with standard antioxidants. The results indicated that the amount of phenolics in different plant parts varied from 7.56 to 48.5 mg TAE/g and the amount of flavonoids varied from 0.23 to 0.81 mg QE/g. Among different plant parts, ethanol extract of inflorescence possessed highest amount of phenolics, while aqueous extract of leaf had highest amount of flavonoids as compared to stem. The antioxidant capability of the species as verified by diverse antioxidant assays varied with different plant parts as well as with different solvents used for extraction. Remarkably, all the tested extracts validated a significant free radical scavenging action with the water and ethanol extracts of leaf and inflorescence in most of the test methods. Therefore, water and ethanol were determined to be the most effective solvent systems for extracting antioxidants. The correlation coefficient of phenolics and flavonoids with antioxidant efficacy endorsed the contribution of the phytocompounds to the antioxidant potential. These findings signify that the extracts of A. pubescens possess effective antioxidant properties and can be used to prevent the damage caused by free radicals.