A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE EFFECT OF SOLVENTS ON THE PHYTOCHEMICAL PROFILE AND BIOLOGICAL POTENTIAL OF ORMOCARPUM COCHINCHINENSE AUCT. NON (LOUR.) MERRILL Original Article A. HANNAH HEPSIBAH, G. JEYA JOTHI Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, Loyola College, Chennai 600034, Tamil Nadu, India Email: gjjothiloyola@gmail.com * Received: 09 Sep 2016 Revised and Accepted: 05 Nov 2016 ABSTRACT Objective: Plants contain different classes of phytochemicals which have different levels of solubility in solvents, based on their polarity. Hence, this study aims to compare the effects of various solvents on the phytochemical profile and biological potential of Ormocarpum cochinchinense. The present study is the first to evaluate the antifungal activity of the plant. Methods: The sequential extraction was carried out using two sets of solvent systems namely hexane, ethyl acetate, ethanol and chloroform, acetone, methanol. The extracts were subjected to standard phytochemical analysis, antimicrobial activity by disc diffusion method against eight bacteria and six fungi and antioxidant activity by 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. Results: Varied range of phytochemicals was found in the extracts. Acetone extract was rich in phenolic compounds, whereas terpenoids were extracted only in methanol. Acetone extracts showed highest antibacterial activity with a maximum zone of 14.5 mm against Shigella flexineri whereas ethyl acetate extract showed the best antifungal activity with the highest zone of inhibition of 12 mm against Trichophyton menta agrophytes. Hexane and chloroform extracts did not show any antimicrobial activity. For DPPH assay, the ethanol extracts showed the highest percentage inhibition of 92.87%. Conclusion: The present investigation on the plant O. cochinchinense has proved that the selection of solvent for extraction should be based on the target compounds and their bioactivity and concludes that acetone was the best for the extraction of antibacterial compounds and ethyl acetate for antifungal compounds whereas, ethanol was the best for extracting antioxidant compounds in O. cochinchinense. Keywords: Phytochemistry, Antimicrobial activity, Disc diffusion, Antioxidant activity, DPPH assay, Ormocarpum cochinchinense © 2017 The Authors. Published by Innovare Academic Sciences Pvt Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4. 0/) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22159/ijpps.2017v9i1.15126 INTRODUCTION Plants are great reservoirs of phytochemicals which possess diverse therapeutic properties. Phytochemicals from medicinal plants protect against many chronic degenerative diseases [1]. This is the reason why plants have been studied extensively over the years for their various therapeutic potentials namely antimutagenic, antimicrobial, antioxidant, anticancer, etc., [2]. Apart from therapeutic purpose, phytochemicals are used as precursors for the synthesis of many drugs and about 80% of present day medicines are directly or indirectly obtained from plants [3]. The important steps in isolating a biologically active phytochemical from plants are extraction, isolation and characterization of the bioactive compound. Extraction is a very crucial step. The selection of solvent systems is based on the compounds that are targeted [4]. During extraction, the solvents solubilize the compounds of similar polarity by diffusing into the solid plant tissue. Plants are usually air dried to remove water content in order to attain a constant weight before extraction. A good solvent should have low toxicity, easy to evaporate, preservative action, inability to cause complex or dissociation of extract, should not interfere with the bioassay [5]. Hospitals Acquired Infection (HAI) is the major cause of death and disability for patients. The rate of deaths due to HAI is up to 25% in developing countries. Healthcare-associated infections in developing countries are 2 to 20 times higher than in developed countries. In India catheters and lung infections are believed to be the primary source of infection and organisms like Klebsiella, Pseudomonas and Enterococci are predominant. Pneumonia is most common in intensive surgical units. The antibiotic resistance of some commonly used medications is still a therapeutic problem which medicinal plants have the potential to resolve [2] because phytochemicals from plants have a different mechanism of action compared to that of conventional antibiotics and this could be of great help in the treatment of resistant microbes [6]. Free radicals are continuously synthesised in our human body which leads to oxidative stress and can damage lipids, proteins, carbohydrates and DNA [7]. Human cells are constantly exposed to free radicals which lead to several diseases like heart disease, stroke and cancer [2]. Plant based dietary antioxidants are believed to have an important role in the maintenance of human health because our endogenous antioxidants provide insufficient protection against the constant and unavoidable challenge of reactive oxygen species. Phytochemical antioxidants have the ability to neutralise the free radicals or reactive oxygen species or oxidants responsible for the onset of cell damage. Synthetic antioxidants are found to be harmful to health [8]. In developing countries like India, the majority of the population are dependent on traditional medicine for the treatment of various diseases [9]. Moreover, India is one of the largest producers of medicinal herbs and the potential of many higher plants remains to be unexplored in this country [10], at the same time there is a rapid rate of plant extinction and there exists a fear that the rich source of useful phytochemical structures which could be synthesized chemically can be lost forever before their use could be explored [5]. Ormocarpum cochinchinense (Tamil: Elumbotti) which belongs to the family Fabaceae has been used by traditional healers for a long time. The bark and leaves are used for healing bone fracture by the Irula tribes [11]. The leaves are eaten fresh or prepared into a medicated candy (lehiyam) to cure chest pain. The decoction of the root is a valuable remedy for rheumatic fever [12]. The leaves are used for nervous pain. The roots are considered as tonic and stimulant and International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences ISSN- 0975-1491 Vol 9, Issue 1, 2017