Vol 9, Suppl. 3, 2016 Online - 2455-3891 Print - 0974-2441 QUALITATIVE PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF ELYTRARIA ACAULIS LINDAU (ACANTHACEAE) MANIGANDAN M*, KOLANJINATHAN K Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Annamalai University, Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India. Email: senthilmanigandan@gmail.com Received: 19 October 2016, Revised and Accepted: 26 October 2016 ABSTRACT Objectives: To analyze the phytochemicals quantitatively and screening the antioxidant efficacy of methanol extracts of Elytraria acaulis plant extract by in vitro. Methods: The total phenols, flavonoids, and tannin contents analyzed by Folin-Ciocalteu method, aluminum chloride colorimetric and calculated as gallic acid equivalents/g (GAE/g) of dry weight. Free radical scavenging activity was screened using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), radical scavenging activities, and ferric reducing power assay was also analyzed. Results: The total phenolic content of the aqueous leaf extract was 46.84 µg GAE/g of extract powder. Significantly similar levels of total flavonoid and tannin contents of the plant were 41.72 and 39.50 µg GAE/g, respectively. The plant extracts showed appreciable free radical scavenging activities at the highest concentration of 400 µg/mL superoxide anion radical with IC 50 values (107.7±1.081 µg/mL), and for DPPH and considerably high amount of radical scavenging activity was found with very low IC 50 values (4.3±0.88 µg/mL) compared with quercetin. Conclusion: The phenolic and flavonoid compounds provide substantial antioxidant properties which could be effectively used for pharmaceutical, nutraceutical as well as anti-inflammatory applications. Keywords: Phenols, Flavonoids, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl, Pharmaceuticals. INTRODUCTION In search of novel sources of antioxidants from the last decades, medicinal plants have been extensively studied for their antioxidant activity. From ancient times, herbs have been used in many areas, including nutrition, medicine, flavoring, beverages, cosmetics, etc. The plants are a rich source of large amount of drugs comprising to different groups such as antispasmodics, emetics, anti-cancer, and antimicrobials. A large number of the plants are claimed to possess the antibiotic properties in the traditional system and are also used extensively by the tribal people worldwide. It is now believed that nature has given the cure of every disease in one way or another. Plants have been known to relieve various diseases in Ayurveda. Therefore, the researchers today are emphasizing on evaluation and characterization of various plants and plant constituents against a number of diseases based on their traditional claims of the plants given in Ayurveda [1]. Extraction is an intimate process to isolate the components from plant cells, which may contain a complex mixture of many metabolites, such as alkaloids, glycosides, terpenoids, flavonoids, lignan, phenols, and saponins most of the researchers prefers hot continuous extraction (soxhlet extraction). The advantage of this system is that instead of many portions of warm solvent being passed through the sample, just one batch of solvent is recycled [2,3]. Oxidation is an essentially biological process for energy production in many living organisms. However, excessive reactive oxygen species, produced in vivo during some oxidative reactions, are not only strongly associated with lipid peroxidation but also involved in the development of some chronic diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, atherosclerosis, and diabetes [4]. The aim of the present study is to screen the antioxidant and phytochemical properties of Elytraria acaulis plant extracts. METHODS Collection of plant The Indigenous plant variety E. acaulis from the Family of Acanthaceae was collected from the places in and around Bhuvanagiri, Cuddalore district and identified morphologically and taxonomically; the specimens were submitted to the Department of Botany, Annamalai University. Preparation of plant extract The collected plant material was washed cleanly in tap water and then air dried under shadow condition at room temperature (25°C) for 2-3 weeks until it becomes brittle. After complete drying, the plant material was grinded to a fine powder using an electrical blender. 50 g of dried powder was packed in the soxhlet apparatus with 300 mL of solvents (methanol, acetone, chloroform, and hexane) extracted until the extract was clear. The solvents from the extracts were evaporated using rotary vacuum evaporator, and the extract was stored in a refrigerator for further use [5]. Determination of total phenol The total phenolic content of the methanol extract of E. acaulis plant was determined by using the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent according to the method of Singleton et al. [6]. About 1 mL of plant extract was mixed with 5 mL of Folin-Ciocalteu reagent at the ratio of 1:10, followed by the addition of 4 mL of Na 2 CO 3 ( 0.7 M). Subsequently, the mixture was shaken for 2 hrs at room temperature and the absorbance was measured at 760 nm. All the tests were performed at triplicates. The concentration of total phenolic compounds was determined as µg gallic acid equivalents using the following equation obtained from a standard gallic acid graph: Absorbance=0.001×pyrocatechol (μg)+0.0033. © 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/ajpcr.2017.v10i2.15759 Research Article