Spectrophotometric Determination of Flavonoids Content in Fruit of Okra (Abelmoschus escullentus L. Moench) from Magelang Central Java Indonesia

Abstract

Okra (Abelmoschus escullentus L. Moench) is a vital vegetable crop widely grown in tropical and sub-tropical parts of the world with high medicinal value. its great potential use as a medicinal plant. Okra is rich in protein, unsaturated fatty acids, minerals, free amino acids, as well as bioactive ingredients, such as flavonoids, alkaloids, steroids, terpenoids. Flavonoids are one important bioactive with many biological activities, such as anti-hepatotoxic, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant. In this work, the optimum extraction conditions and spectrophotometric method for determining the total flavonoid content from the fruit of okra were investigated. The coarse powder of fruits of okra from Magelang Central Java Indonesia was subjected to extraction by the maceration method with different solvents (water, hexane, and ethyl alcohol). Qualitative analysis using a TLC method of flavonoids was performed in optimized systems chloroform : acetone : formic acid (75 : 16.5 : 8.5 v/v), and visualization by observing on UV lamp (at l = 254 and 366 nm) spraying with reagent ammonia. UV-Vis spectrophotometry analysis for quantification of flavonoid was previously validated in terms of linearity, the limit of detection, the limit of quantification, precision, and accuracy. The quantitative results of the fruits crude extracts of okra revealed the percentage yield of the flavonoids at the level of 4.41 mg/g ethanolic extract, which was significantly higher than that of the other extracts. The findings of the present study suggest that the okra fruit extracts have significant amounts of total flavonoid with potential applications in biomedical and pharmaceutical fields.