Determination of Total Phenolic, Tannin, Flavonoid Contents and Evaluation of Antioxidant Property of Amaranthus tricolor (L)

Abstract

Free radicals or reactive oxygen species are involved in various pharmacological conditions. As synthetic antioxidants possess numerous adverse health effects, the medicinal plants possessing antioxidant components can be used to prevent harmful effects of reactive oxygen species. In the present study leaves of Amaranthus tricolor Linn were used to prepare chloroform (CEAT), methanolic (MEAT) and aqueous (AEAT) extracts, analyze the presence of phytochemicals and evaluation of in-vitro antioxidant property. Quantitative determination of phenols, tannins and flavonoids in leaves A.tricolor was carried out using spectrophotometric methods. The antioxidant activity was performed by DPPH, p-NDA radical scavenging methods for different extracts of the plant. The plant species showed that methanolic extract (MEAT) on higher concentration possess better antioxidant potential when compared with reference standard ascorbic acid. The plant extracts exhibited strong antioxidant DPPH radical scavenging activity with the IC50 values 290, 657, 830 and 130μg/ml of MEAT, CEAT, AEAT and ASA respectively. In scavenging hydroxyl radical by p-NDA method the MEAT showed maximum activity, CEAT showed moderate and AEAT showed minimum activity. The strongest antioxidant activity of MEAT could be due to the presence of flavonoids and phenols.