Abstract
Objective: This study has been designed to study phenolic and flavonoid contents quantitatively; screen antioxidant activity and investigate unsaponifiable and saponifiable matters of Euphorbia grandialata R. aerial parts. Methods: Total phenolic and flavonoid content were determined by Folin-Ciocalteu reagent and aluminium chloride methods respectively, while 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) was used for anti-oxidant assay. GC/MS analysis was used to analyse unsaponifiable and saponifiable matters. Results: Total phenolics result was calculated as (17.61 ± 1.2 μg gallic acid /g), total flavonoids as (4.495 ± 0.39 μg rutin/g) and anti-oxidants activity as (140.6 % μg ascorbic acid/g). The identified compounds in unsaponifiable matter were hydrocarbons (51.1 %), steroids and triterpenes (35.92%). The saponifiable matter showed fourteen components from which six were identified as methyl esters of saturated fatty acids (46.26%) and eight as methyl esters of unsaturated fatty acids (53.74 %). Conclusion: Euphorbia grandialata could be considered as a valuable source of natural antioxidants. This is the first report for phenolics and flavonoids content, antioxidant activity and GC/MS analysis of this plant.
Highlights
Euphorbiaceae, called the spurge family, is considered as a large family of flowering plants comprising around 300 genera with 7,500 species (Rahman, 2013)
Flavonoids content and antioxidant activity Spectrophotometric determination of total phenolics content in E. grandialata alcoholic extract was done according to Folin-Ciocalteu method using gallic acid as the standard
Results showed that 17.61 ± 1.2 μg of gallic acid were equivalent to 1g of fresh weight, and the results of total flavonoids content determination by aluminium chloride method was 4.495 ± 0.39 μg rutin were equivalent to 1g fresh weight
Summary
Euphorbiaceae, called the spurge family, is considered as a large family of flowering plants comprising around 300 genera with 7,500 species (Rahman, 2013). -3-galactoroside (Awaad et al, 2013), quercetin-3-glucoside, quercetin-3-glucuronide, quercetin-3-rhamnoside (Saleh, 1985), rutin and 5'-methoxy-8-methyl-6-prenyl-5,7-dihydroxy-3',4'methylenedioxy-flavone (Kumar and Intekhab, 2013).Euphorbia grandialata R. commonly known as ''Candelabra tree'', ''Spurge'', ''Milkweed'' or ''Penge Euphorbia'', is widely distributed in South Africa, rarely cultivated in Egypt It prefers well-drained soil, during the active growing season from March to September and the flowering stage during Summer (Dyer, 1937). 1,1-Diphenyl-2- pierylhydrazyl (DPPH) method is one of the universal in vitro tools in which DPPH radical, a very stable nitrogen-centered radical, can be used to determine the free radical scavenging ability, which is Ismail et al / Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Science 7 (06); 2017: 176-181 related to their antioxidative activities. This method depends on spectrophotometric measurement of changes in concentration of DPPH which results from the reaction of the free radicals with an antioxidant (Meng et al, 2016)
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