Affiliation:
1. Department of Botany, Bioinformatics and Climate Change Impacts Management, University School of Sciences, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad
Abstract
Senna occidentalis (L.) is a plant belonging to the family Fabaceae and is also known as the coffee plant. It is used in various skin diseases, wounds, sores, and bone fractures as traditional medicine. Antioxidant, antimalarial, hepatoprotective, and antimalarial activities are recorded in this plant. The preliminary phytochemical screening in methanol, acetone, hexane and chloroform extracts of leaves records the presence of alkaloids, carbohydrates, glycosides, diterpenes, triterpenes, phytosterols, saponins, lactones, tannins, proteins and steroids in the present study. TLC in different solvent systems proves the ethyl acetate: hexane (2:8) as the best solvent system for the separation of phytoconstituents in methanolic extract of leaves. This study also examines the quantity of protein, total sugars, reducing sugars, phenols, and starch in fresh leaves by using biochemical assays. TFC and TPC were performed in methanol, acetone, and chloroform extracts, which proves that acetone extraction is the best choice for the TFC (452.15 ± 1.38 mg QE/g) and TPC (938.79 ± 10.98 mg GAE/g) content. Antioxidant assays such as DPPH, FRAP, CUPRAC, PMA, H2O2, and ABTS are also examined in methanolic and acetone extracts of leaves. This study can be useful for pharmaceutical industries for further analysis for drug preparations as leaves possess very good antioxidant activities and various bioactive compounds.