Preliminary Assessment of Phytochemicals and Free Radical Scavenging Activity of Different Plants Collected from the Western Region of Nepal

Abstract

Medicinal plants produce vital secondary metabolites in curing various diseases and pathological conditions. There are multiple tribes and communities where people are using plants from the medicinal aspect to cure different diseases. The aim of the present study was qualitative and quantitative phytochemical screening, determination of total phenol and total flavonoid content, and free radical scavenging activity of different parts of ethnomedicinally used plants collected from the western region of Nepal. The phytochemical screening of most of the extract showed the presence of phenols, carbohydrates, flavonoids, and glycosides. The ethanolic flower extract of Callicarpa macrophylla showed a higher phenolic content with a value of 195 ± 7.33 µg GAE/mg. Ethyl acetate extract of Elephantopus scaber root revealed the highest amount of flavonoid content with the value of 1692.31 ± 34.79 µg QE/mg of extract, followed by ethanolic flower extract of Callicarpa macrophylla. Ethanolic flower extract of Callicarpa macrophylla showed potent DPPH free radical scavenging activity with a half inhibitory concentration of 7.28 µg/ml. In contrast, Elephantopus scaber ethyl acetate root extract revealed the maximum free extreme scavenging properties among all the ethyl acetate extracts. From the experiment, the free radical scavenging potential of ethanolic flower extract of the Callicarpa macrophylla was comparable with ascorbic acid. This comparable activity may be attributed to higher phenols and flavonoid content in ethanolic extract. The result signifies that the ethanolic extract of Callicarpa macrophylla acts as an antioxidant and may contain a potent bioactive compound which, with further investigation, may lead to a novel compound.