Original Article High-performance thin-layer chromatographic analysis of antioxidants present in different parts of Saraca asoca (Roxb.) de Wilde Jayita Saha a , Sumona Mukherjee b , Kamala Gupta a, **, Bhaskar Gupta a, * a Department of Biological Sciences, Presidency University, 86/1 College Street, Kolkata 700073, India b Department of Botany, Bidhannagar College, EB-2, Sector I, Salt Lake, Kolkata 700064, India article info Article history: Received 13 August 2013 Accepted 10 October 2013 Available online xxx Keywords: Saraca asoca Gallic acid Antioxidants DPPH assay HPTLC assay abstract Objective: Gallic acid, ellagic acid and quercetin are the important antioxidant compounds of Saraca asoca (Roxb.) de Wilde (Caesalpiniaceae). This report describes the determination of free radical scavenging activity in different plant parts (of S. asoca) by DPPH assay with correlation, and quantification of gallic acid, ellagic acid and quercetin in different plant parts by a simple, sensitive and validated HPTLC method. Methodology: Methanolic extracts of bark, leaf and flowers of S. asoca were investigated for their antioxidant potential with the aid of DPPH assay followed by HPTLC analysis for quantitative evaluation of antioxidants (gallic acid, ellagic acid, and quercetin) in different plant parts. Results: HPTLC analysis exhibited high amount of gallic acid and quercetin in flower (0.320% and 0.11% w/w respectively) and high amount of ellagic acid in bark (0.4805% w/w) which corresponds to low IC50 values of 6.83  0.07 mg/ml and 6.6  0.10 mg/ml respectively, indicating the remarkable antioxidant activity of these two plant parts whereas moderate amount of gallic acid (0.164 %w/w) and very low amount of quercetin (0.0445% w/w) and ellagic acid (0.04% w/w) correlate high IC50 value of 28.6  0.62 mg/ml representing its poor antioxidant potential. Conclusion: Consumption of bark and flower of S. asoca could be beneficial by virtue of its high antioxidant activity. The flower and bark may be considered as a source of gallic acid and ellagic acid respectively. The presence of moderate amount of gallic acid in leaf can be an alternative source. Copyright ª 2013, JPR Solutions; Published by Reed Elsevier India Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ91 9831128734. ** Corresponding author. Tel.: þ91 9831806738. E-mail addresses: kamala.botany@presiuniv.ac.in, kamalagupta@gmail.com (K. Gupta), bhaskar.biotechnology@presiuniv.ac.in, bhaskarzoology@gmail.com (B. Gupta). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jopr journal of pharmacy research xxx (2013) 1 e6 Please cite this article in press as: Saha J, et al., High-performance thin-layer chromatographic analysis of antioxidants present in different parts of Saraca asoca (Roxb.) de Wilde, Journal of Pharmacy Research (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.jopr.2013.10.004 0974-6943/$ e see front matter Copyright ª 2013, JPR Solutions; Published by Reed Elsevier India Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jopr.2013.10.004