Abstract
Kaempferol (KA) is a natural flavonol that can be found in plants and plant-derived foods with a plethora of different pharmacological properties. In the current study, we developed an efficient extraction method for the isolation of KA from ultrasonicated basil leaves (Ocimum basilicum). We successfully employed a Box–Behnken design (BBD) in order to investigate the effect of different extraction variables including methanol concentration (40–80%), extraction temperature (40–60 °C), and extraction time (5–15 min). The quantification of KA yield was carried out by employing a validated densitometric high performance thin layer chromatography in connection with ultraviolet detection (HPTLC-VIS). The obtained data showed that the quadratic polynomial model (R2 = 0.98) was the most appropriate. The optimized ultrasonic extraction yielded 94.7 ng/spot of KA when using methanol (79.99%) at 60 °C for 5 min. When using toluene-ethyl acetate-formic acid (70:30:1 v/v/v) as a solvent, KA was detected in basil leaves at an Retention factor (Rf) value of 0.26 at 330 nm. Notably, the analytical method was successfully validated with a linear regression of R2 = 0.99, which reflected a good linear relationship. The developed HPTLC-VIS method in this study was precise, accurate, and robust due to the lower obtained results from both the percent relative standard deviation (%RSD) and SEM of the O. basilicum. The antioxidant activity of KA (half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) = 0.68 μg/mL) was higher than that of the reference ascorbic acid (IC50 = 0.79 μg/mL) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) (IC50 = 0.88 μg/mL). The development of economical and efficient techniques is very important for the extraction and quantification of important pharmaceutical compounds such as KA.
Highlights
Plants are sources of various phytochemicals such as terpenes, phenylpropanoids, diarylheptanoids, isothiocyanates, and sulfur compounds
Solvent polarity played a critical role in the extraction of total flavonoid content, and the methanol/water mixture led to the best performance acting as a great solvent system for polar antioxidants [28,29]
The data obtained from the current study showed that the high performance TLC (HPTLC)-VIS densitometric method and the Box–Behnken design (BBD) were efficient for the identification and quantitative analysis of KA from basil leaves
Summary
Plants are sources of various phytochemicals such as terpenes, phenylpropanoids, diarylheptanoids, isothiocyanates, and sulfur compounds These natural compounds are often explored for their potential use. The Ocimum genus belongs to the mint family (Lamiaceae), which contains dozens of medicinal plants that are grown for their high economic value This genus is native to tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, Africa, and South America, and it consists of annual and perennial herbs and shrubs [4,5]. Basil can be cultivated in fields as well as under greenhouse conditions, which can result in different concentrations of chlorophylls and secondary metabolites This herb is utilized for its medicinal values to treat headaches, coughs, diarrhea, constipation, warts, worms, and kidney malfunction [6]. Basil is an essential ingredient used in traditional culinary practices [7,8] and is known as rihan in Arabic [9]
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