Full Length Research Paper

Screening of antioxidant activity, total phenolics and GC-MS study of Vitex negundo

P. Praveen Kumar¹*, S. Kumaravel¹ and C. Lalitha²

¹Food Testing Laboratory, Indian Institute of Crop Processing Technology, Pudukkottai Road, Thanjavur-613 005, Tamil Nadu, India.

²Department of Biochemistry, Dhanalkshmi Srinivasan Arts and Science College for Women, Perambalur-621212, Tamil Nadu, India.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: pravee.21msc@gmail.com. Tel: 09486753346.

Accepted 11 June, 2010

Abstract

The present study was carried out for identification of the phytochemicals present in the Vitex negundo leaves and also evaluate the total phenols, total flavonoids and antioxidant activity of the leaf extract. Total phenols was carried out by Folin Ciocalteu method and the phenolic content was 27.72 mg/100 of gallic acid equivalent (GE). Antioxidant activity was evaluated by DPPH method and the leaves of V. negundo showed 23.21 mg/100 of ascorbic acid equivalent antioxidant capacity (AEAC). The GC-MS study also carried out and it showed the presence of phytochemicals like 4H-Pyran-4-one, 2,3-dihydro-3,5-dihydroxy-6-methyl-(RT:6.17), Phytol (RT:19.67) and Vitamin E (RT:25.11).

Key words: Total Phenols, total flavonoids, antioxidant activity, DPPH, GC-MS.