US EPA

8322979 

Journal Article 

Determination of the total phenolic, flavonoid contents; antioxidant activity and GC-MS study of the leaves of the medicinal plant sarcocephalus latifolius 

Edewor Theresa, I; Owa Stephen, O; Oladipupo, SS; Oyelakin, RA 

2015 

Global Research Online 

34 

2 

82-86 

English 

Sarcocephalus latifolius is a medicinal plant whose leaves are useful for the treatment of fever, pain, diarrhea, etc. The aim of the present study was to determine the phytochemical constituents and quantify the total phenolic and flavonoid contents of the plant leaves. The phytochemical screening of the methanol extract revealed presence of saponins, tannins, flavonoids, steroids and alkaloids while anthraquinone glycosides were absent. Only steroids were observed present in the n-hexane extract. The total phenolic content was 72.12 ± 0.09 mg Gallic acid equivalent/mg extract while that of total flavonoid content was 52.20 ± 0.13 mg quercetin equivalent/mg extract. GC-MS analysis of two of the fractions obtained from fractionation of the methanol extract revealed presence of sixteen compounds in the butanol and seven compounds in the ethyl acetate fractions. The most abundant compound in the ethyl acetate fraction was 2-hydroxy-5-methylbenzaldehyde (60.079%) and the least quinic acid (3.274%) while quinic acid (31.124%) was the major component in the butanol fraction and 4-H-pyran-4-one, 2, 3-dihydro-3, 5-dihydroxy-6-methyl was the least (1.076%). The composition of both fractions is made up of phenolics, carbonyls, alkaloids, fatty acid esters, other esters and substituted aromatic hydrocarbons. © Copyright protected. 

Flavonoids; GC-MS; Phenolics; Phytochemicals; Sarcocephalus latifolius