ASSESSMENT OF TOTAL PHENOLIC, FLAVONOID CONTENT, ANTIOXIDANT POTENTIAL AND HPLC PROFILE OF THREE MORINGA SPECIES LEAF EXTRACTS

Document Type : Original Research Article

Authors

1 Medicinal & Aromatic Plants Res. Dept., Hort. Res. Inst., ARC, Giza, Egypt

2 Biochemistry Dept., Fac. Agric., Zagazig University, Egypt

3 Genetic Dept., Fac. Agric., Zagazig University, Egypt

4 Botany and Microbiology Dept., Fac. Sci. (Female), Al-Azhar University, Egypt

Abstract

In the current investigation, three selected Moringa species (M. stenopetala, M. peregrina and M. oleifera) grown at Orman Botanical Garden, Giza, Egypt were tested to quantify spectrometrically, the total phenolic compounds according to Folin–Ciocalteu's assay and flavonoids content to assess their corresponding effect on their antioxidative activity. Different leaf extracts (hexane, ethyl acetate and ethanol 70%) of the three studied species were prepared. The obtained results revealed that M. peregrina gave the best extract yield for the leaves extracted by the different solvents. Regarding the total phenolic compounds, data exposed ethanol 70% extract of M. peregrina leaves as the highest value among other species (11.66 g GAE/100 g extract), while it was for hexane extract that showed the highest value among other species in flavonoids content (7.21 g QE/100 g extract). Antioxidant activity of leaf extracts was evaluated by means of 2,2-dyphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (ABTS) scavenging assays. Data exhibited M. peregrina as the highest species to afford free radical scavenging activity with DPPH and ABTS assays in all concentrations of all extracts especially, 1000 μg/ml of ethanol (70%) with 97.00 and 92.67% inhibition, respectively. Moreover, HPLC with UV detection was employed for the identification and quantification of the phenolic compounds and flavonoid content, present in leaf methanolic extracts of the studied species. HPLC assay identified 25 phenolic compounds and 11 flavonoids in the leaves. It was noticed that M. stenopetala leaves emerged the highest values in most of the phenolic compounds and flavonoids. Eventually, it can be concluded that Moringa leaves showed their certain nutritional value and therefore had the potential as source of natural antioxidants. In addition, their regular consumption in diet could provide health benefits to humans by their protection role against oxidative stress.

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