Pharmaceutical Potential and Phenolics Profiling of Leaves and Bark of Calotropis Procera in Relation to Extraction Solvents

Abstract

This study appraises pharmaceutical potential and phenolics profiling of various solvent extracts gained from bark and leaves of Calotropis procera plant. The extracts were obtained using various solvents including CH3OH, C4H8O2, CHCl3 (50 and 100% for each) and H2O. The extracts were evaluated for antioxidant potential, antibacterial, antianti-glycation and anti-inflammatory activities. The yield of extracts ranged from 5.61 to 48.16% of dry weight (DW) for different extraction solvents. The highest percentage extract yield was obtained with 100% CH3OH from leaves. Various solvent extracts from C. procera leaves and bark exhibited considerable total phenolic content (20.41 to 100.18 GAE mg/g DW and total flavonoid content (IC50 18.33 to 92.92 CE mg/g DW), radical scavenging activity (1.03 to 7.42 mg/mL) and reducing power (EC50 525.65 to 1157.74 mg/mL). The tested extracts showed notable antibacterial potential against bacterial strains such as Klebsiella pneumonia, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus subtilis, and Escherichia coli. The maximum antioxidant and antibacterial activities were exhibited by methanol extracts from both tested parts of C. procera plant. However, the anti-inflammatory activity (45.45% inhibition) was observed to be higher for 50% chloroform extract from the leaves. HPLC analysis established that the leaves and bark of C. procera contained considerable amounts of natural antioxidants such as sinapic acid (17.3 ± 2.11 to 9586.44 ± 0.78 mg kg-1), vanillic acid (9.43 ± 0.21 to 5051.7 ± 18.47 mg kg-1) and protocatechuic acid (2.46 ± 0.40 to 139.05 ± 1.37 mg kg-1). All extracts from the tested materials did not exhibit significant anti-glycation activity. Generally, the extracts from leaves of C. procera offered higher levels of phenolic acids and biological activities than the bark extracts.