Antioxidant Potential of Chloranthus erectus (Chloranthaceae) from various solvents extract

Abstract

Chloranthus erectus is a herbaceous plant that has been used as a medicinal plant in several regions such as China and Southeast Asia. Although it possesses valuable medicinal properties, till now there is not much research has been carried out on the medicinal properties of this plant and the knowledge of this plant is limited among the research fertility. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the phytochemicals, total phenolic content (TPC), and antioxidant activity of leaf and twig of C. erectus in various solvents extract (hexane, petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate, and methanol). Phytochemical screening of extracts showed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, saponins, quinones, glycosides, and steroids. The highest phenolic content for leaf and twig samples was determined from the methanolic (9.64 ± 0.15 µg GAE/g) and hexanoic extract (7.39 ± 0.27 µg GAE/g), respectively. Meanwhile, the highest antioxidant activity was reported from the methanolic extract of both leaf (88.36 ± 0.24%) and twig (91.25 ± 0.10%) samples. Hence, the results of the study can be concluded that C. erectus has the potential to become a good natural antioxidant and the information from this study can be utilized by the communities as well as other researchers.