BACKGROUND: This study was aimed to evaluate antioxidant and α-glucosidase inhibitory activity, with a subsequent analysis of total phenolic and total flavonoid content of methanol extract and its derived fractions from Clinacanthus nutans accompanied by comprehensive phytochemical profiling.
METHODS: Liquid-liquid partition chromatography was used to separate methanolic extract to get hexane, ethyl acetate, butanol and residual aqueous fractions. The total antioxidant activity was determined by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazy (DPPH) radical scavenging and ferric reducing antioxidant power assay (FRAP). The antidiabetic activity of methanol extract and its consequent fractions were examined by α-glucosidase inhibitory bioassay. The chemical profiling was carried out by gas chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC Q-TOF MS).
RESULTS: The total yield for methanol extraction was (12.63 ± 0.98) % (w/w) and highest fractionated value found for residual aqueous (52.25 ± 1.01) % (w/w) as compared to the other fractions. Significant DPPH free radical scavenging activity was found for methanolic extract (63.07 ± 0.11) % and (79.98 ± 0.31) % for ethyl acetate fraction among all the fractions evaluated. Methanol extract was the most prominent in case of FRAP (141.89 ± 0.87 μg AAE/g) whereas most effective reducing power observed in ethyl acetate fraction (133.6 ± 0.2987 μg AAE/g). The results also indicated a substantial α-glucosidase inhibitory activity for butanol fraction (72.16 ± 1.0) % and ethyl acetate fraction (70.76 ± 0.49) %. The statistical analysis revealed that total phenolic and total flavonoid content of the samples had the significant (p
* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.