Abstract
Cajanus cajan (L) Millsp., named Arhar in Hindi and Pigeon pea in English, is an important grain crop of rain-fed agriculture in semi-arid tropics, belonging to family Leguminosae. It is a food and a forage crop, rich in proteins with amino acids like methionine, lysine and tryptophan. Extensive studies on chemical composition of C. cajan have been done during last few decades. This article presents an overview of phytochemicals as a source of natural antioxidants in C. cajan seed extracts. The antioxidant potentials of the different fractions, that is, n-hexane, ethyl acetate, chloroform, methanol, n-butanol and aqueous, of C. cajan seeds were screened by using ABTS∙+ assays, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay, total phenolic contents determination (TPC), total flavonoid contents (TFC) and metal chelating activity. Aqueous extract shows the highest trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) value, 140.69±0.34mM in ABTSI‡+ assays and the highest total phenolic content (TPC) value, 927.5±0.8 gallic acid equivalent (GAE). Hexane soluble fraction showed the highest percentage of metal chelating activity, that is, 79.0±0.5% bound iron and the highest FRAP value 49.08±0.55 g/ml, whereas n-butanol soluble fraction indicated the highest total flavonoid contents as 1691.1±0.2 mg/g QE. Key words: Leguminosae, Cajanus cajan, antioxidant potential, ABTSI‡+ assay, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay, total phenolic contents, total flavonoid contents, metal chelating activity.
Highlights
Human beings have been using plants for medicinal purposes throughout the history and even are extensively using plant materials for preparing phytopharmaceuticals
We report the in vitro antioxidant capacities of organic fractions and aqueous extracts of C
Ethyl acetate, n-butanol, n-hexane soluble fractions, methanolic and aqueous extracts were rich in terpenes, phenolics, flavonoids, saponins and reducing sugars with traces of n-hexane fraction
Summary
Human beings have been using plants for medicinal purposes throughout the history and even are extensively using plant materials for preparing phytopharmaceuticals. The role of medicinal plants in disease prevention and control is due to the presence of antioxidant properties of their polyphenolic constituents, namely, flavones, flavonoids, isoflavones, anthocyanin, lignans, coumarin, catechins and isocatechins (Aqil et al., 2006) that are amphipathic in nature (Abbasi et al, 2010). These compounds are commonly found in both edible and nonedible plants and have multiple applications in food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries (Kahkonen et al, 1999).
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