Research Article
C. Gladis Raja Malar, C. Chell
Abstract
The study was conducted to determine the antioxidant activity, total phenol and flavonoid content of the stem of Salacia oblonga, collected from five geographically distant regions of Western Ghat, Karnataka were examined using extracts of aqueous, ethanol, methanol, chloroform and petroleum ether. The five different solvent extracts of S. oblonga stem were evaluated for antioxidant activities by DPPH (1,1 – diphenyl -2- picryl-hydrazyl) radical scavenging activity using Butylated Hydroxy Toluene (BHT) as standard. Among five accessions with different solvents used, maximum antioxidant activity was found in aqueous stem extract (84.3 %) from Hubli(2) followed by others. Total phenol and flavonoid contents were quantitatively estimated. The aqueous stem extract of Salacia oblonga (Hubli(2) - Karnataka) was found maximum in total phenol and flavonoid contents were 34.63 mg GAE /g and 18.72 mg QE /g respectively. The aqueous stem extracts of S. oblonga had superior level of antioxidant activity. The powerful free radical scavenging effect is attributed to the greater amount of phenol and flavonoid compounds in the aqueous stem extract.