Comparative Evaluation of Crude Extract Fractions of the Whole Plant of Taxillus heyneanus and Dalechampia indica for Antioxidant Activity, Total Phenolic and Flavonoid Content

This study was aimed to investigate the total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC) and antioxidant potential of ethanolic fraction (ETH&EDI) and chloroform fraction (CTH & CDI) of crude extracts of the whole plant of Taxillus heyneanus (TH) and Dalechampia indica (DI).To achieve this, several parameters such as scavenging activity (DPPH, Hydrogen peroxide and Nitric oxide), Reducing power assay, total flavonoids (TFC) and total phenolic content (TPC) using ascorbic acid and gallic acid as standard were examined. All the four extract fractions (ETH, CTH. EDI & CDI) exhibited antioxidant activity. However, the ethanolic fraction of T.heyneanus (ETH) presented a remarkable capacity to scavenge all the tested reactive species (DPPH, Hydrogen peroxide, Nitric oxide) with low IC50 values (38.75 ±0.83, 62.67±5.23, 80.89±0.47μg ⁄ ml). It also showed the highest TPC (125.40±5.24 mg GAE/g dry extract) and TFC (89.41 ±1.21 mg RE/g dry extract). The chloroform fraction of D.indica (CDI) showed low TPC (35.29±4.36 mg GAE/g dry extract), TFC (28.51±0.52 mg RE/g dry extract) and scavenging activity with high IC50 values(477.61±0.69, 404.00±0.38 & 505.52±4.83 μg ⁄ml) values for the DPPH, Hydrogen peroxide and nitric oxide. Ethanolic fractions of both plants (ETH & EDI) exhibited significant scavenging activities with good amounts of phenolic and flavonoid compared to its chloroform fractions (CTH & CDI).The results of the study show that ethanolic fraction of Taxillus heyneanus possesses better antioxidant activity compared to the ethanolic fraction of Dalechampia indica which could be attributed to the presence of high amount of phenolic and flavonoids.