Evaluation of antioxidant capacity and phytochemical investigation of eleven Clusiaceae members from Western Ghats, India

Abstract

Plants of family Clusiaceae are growing in semi-evergreen to evergreen, moist, tropical and lower montane forest mainly native to tropical regions, except Hypericum and Triadenum. Clusiaceae are known for producing a wide range of phytochemicals like isoprenylated xanthones, biflavonoids and anthraquinones. In the present work, water and methanol extracts of the stem and leaves of various species were studied for their total phenolics, flavonoids and antioxidant properties. Phytochemical studies of different species extracts were observed that, species studied having very abundant in phenolics, flavonoids and antioxidants. This study revealed that methanol allowing higher recovery of phytochemicals than water extracts, whereas leaves of all species contained higher amount of total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC) and antioxidant compounds than stem. In water and methanol extracts, the highest TPC was observed in stem of Calophyllum apetalum (17.48 mg/g) while the lowest TPC in leaves of Garcinia gummigutta (7.08 mg/g) on other hand, TFC was highest in Mammea suriga stem (8.46 mg/g) with lowest content in Calophyllum inophyllum stem (3.12 mg/g). The present investigation is the first comprehensive report on Clusiaceae species with respect to phytochemicals and antioxidants study from stem and leaves by using water and methanol as solvents. Our findings from this investigation are of considerable interest from pharmaceutical point of view and to provide suitable, sustainable and alternative source of phytochemicals and antioxidants.