Abstract
Juniperus procera is a natural source of bioactive compounds with the potential of antitumor, antimicrobial, insecticidal, antifungal, and antioxidant activities. An optimization method was developed for total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), and total tannin content (TTC) in leaf and seed extract of Juniperus procera. Organic solvents (methanol (99.8%), ethanol (99%), and acetone (99.5%)), and deionized water (DI) were used for extraction. The estimation of TPC, TFC, and TTC in plant materials was carried out using UV-spectrophotometer and HPLC with the standards gallic acid, quercetin, and tannic acid. Recovery of TPC in leaf extract ranged from 2.9 to 9.7 mg GAE/g DW, TFC from 0.9 to 5.9 mg QE/g DW, and TTC ranged from 1.5 to 4.3 mg TA/g DW while the TPC value in the seed extract ranged from 0.53 to 2.6 mg GAE/g DW, TFC from 0.5 to 1.6 mg QE/g DW, and TTC ranged from 0.5 to 1.4 mg TA/g DW. This result revealed that methanol is the best solvent for recovery of the TPC value (9.7 mg) from leaf extract in comparison to other solvents. Ethanol recorded the highest result of TFC (5.9 mg) in leaf extract among the solvents whereas acetone was the best for TTC yield recovery from leaf extract (4.3 mg). In the case of the seed extract, ethanol was the best solvent for both TPC (2.6 mg), and TFC (1.6 mg) recovery in comparison to other solvents. Total tannin content in methanol resulted in significant recovery from seed extract (1.4 mg). Separation and quantification of gallic acid, quercetin, and tannic acid in plant materials were undertaken using HPLC. Gallic acid in leaf and seed of J. procera ranged from 6.6 to 9.2, 6.5 to 7.2 µg/g DW, quercetin from 6.3 to 18.2, 0.9 to 4.2 µg/g DW, and tannic acid from 16.2 to 29.3, 6.6 to 9.3 µg/g DW, respectively. Solvents have shown a significant effect in the extraction of phenolic compounds. Moreover, phytochemicals in plant materials were identified using GC-MS and resulted in very important bioactive compounds, which include anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antitumor agents such as ferruginol, phenanthrene, and n-hexadecanoic acid. In conclusion, the optimal solvent for extraction depends on the part of the plant material and the compounds that are to be isolated.
Highlights
Juniperus procera is a source of natural bioactive compounds with the potential of anti-tumor, antimicrobial, insecticidal, antifungal, and antioxidant activities [1,2,3,4]
The recovery yield of total flavonoid content (TFC) from the leaf extract varied from 0.9 to 5.9 mg QE/g DW (Table 1), which indicated that ethanol (99%) was the best solvent for the extraction of TFC with significant results (5.9 mg) in contrast with the other solvents, followed by methanol (3.8 mg), acetone (2.9 mg), and deionized water (0.9 mg) (Table 1)
The present results showed that different solvents in the same conditions resulted in various extraction values of phenolic compounds
Summary
Juniperus procera is a source of natural bioactive compounds with the potential of anti-tumor, antimicrobial, insecticidal, antifungal, and antioxidant activities [1,2,3,4]. Methanol, ethanol, acetone, water solvents, and their combinations have been used for the extraction of phenolic compounds [16,17]. This study attempted to optimize the extraction method for the efficient recovery of TPC, TFC, and TTC in the leaf and seed extracts of medicinal plants (J. procera), separation and quantification of gallic acid, quercetin, and tannic acid besides the screening of bioactive compounds. This is the first research to have been conducted on an optimization method for the extraction, separation, quantification, and screening of bioactive compounds from the leaf and seed extract of J. procera. This work serves as a good basis for other researchers to estimate, separate, and quantify the phenolic compounds in medicinal plant such as J. procera
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