Estimation of Phytochemicals and Antioxidant potency of Trigonella foenum-graecum Leaves (Variety HM444)

Abstract

Background: Plants contain phytochemicals that are crucial to their growth and development. The potential health benefits of dietary phytochemicals including flavonoids, isoflavones and other polyphenols. Polyphenolic substances, the largest class of phytochemicals, act as strong antioxidants due to abundance of hydroxyl groups. Trigonella foenum-graceum also known as Fenugreek is rich source of phytochemicals, therefore possess extraordinary healing and medicinal properties. Methods: The present study is designed to evaluate chief phytochemical constituents and antioxidant capacity of acetone extract of dried Trigonella foenum-graecum leaves (Variety HM 444). The phytochemicals like total phenolic content by Folin-Ciocalteu method, total flavonoids by AlCl3 colorimetric assay, total sugars by method of Dubois and reducing sugars by method of Nelson as modified by Somogyi are determined in the acetone extract of leaves. The antioxidant capacity is determined by using 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging assay and phosphomolybdenum assay. Result: Various phytochemicals such as total phenolic content (3.17 mg GAE/g), total flavonoids (1.34 mg CE/g), total sugars (32.35 mg/g), Reducing sugars (0.53 mg/g) and Non- reducing sugars (31.82 mg/g) are investigated in acetone extract of leaves. The antioxidant activity of leaves extract is evaluated using the 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging assay and reported an IC50 value of 737.50 μg/mL. The total antioxidant capacity using phosphomolybdenum assay is 28.21 mg AAE/g.