Determination of the antioxidant content in selected medicinal plants of Kalyan and Kolhapur

Abstract

The aim of this research is to qualitatively screen medicinal plants for the presence of various phytochemicals and to develop a simple spectrophotometric method for the quantitative analysis of flavonoids, phenolic content Ascorbic acid in Tulsi leaves, Tulsi stems, ajwain leaves, clove leaves, ginger rhizome and fenugreek seeds. This study provides an overview of flavonoids, phenolic content, and ascorbic acid in medicinal plants. The contents were determined by the proposed spectrophotometric method, and the obtained results were compared with the Reference method. Qualitative analysis of medicinal plants was performed, and it was observed that alkaloids, Flavonoids, tannins, phenolic compounds, proteins, oils, and fats were present in all plant extracts. TFC, TPC, and AA were determined by using a UV-Vis spectrophotometer. All analyses were performed in triplicate, and the results were expressed as mean ± standard deviation. Tulsi and Ajwain are found to be rich in flavonoids, whereas ginger and fenugreek are rich in phenols. Ascorbic acid is an essential antioxidant present in all medicinal plants. Fenugreek is rich in all antioxidants. The proposed method is simple, rapid, sensitive, and obeys Beer-Lambert’s Law.