COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF IN VITRO ANTIOXIDANT CAPACITY OF FRESH AND DRY LEAF EXTRACTS OF HUGONIA MYSTAX LINN

Vasuki Balakrishnan*, Vijayabaskaran Manickam, Mahadevan Nanjaian, Srinivasan Kulandaivel, Sambathkumar Ramanathan

ABSTRACT

Hugonia Mystax is a valued medicinal plant in traditional folk medicine used in siddha and ayurveda for various ailments. It is a woody evergreen liana distributed throughout India in the dry tropical forest, mostly found in south Indian forest (Tamilnadu and Kerala). Hugonia Mystax locally known as modirakanni, mainly used for skin diseases, rheumatism, antidote for snake bite, anthelmintic, febrifuge, astringent, fever, verminosis, peptic ulcers and intestinal worms. Preliminary phytochemical analysis of Hugonia Mystax extracts showed the presence of carbohydrates, flavonoids, phenolic groups, saponins, steroids, tannins and terpenoids. In vitro antioxidant activity of n-hexane, chloroform and ethanol extracts of fresh and dry leaves of Hugonia Mystax showed significant activity by reducing power assay method using ascorbic acid as a standard drug. Absorbance was measured at 700 nm using UV-spectrophotometer showed significant activity. In conclusion, the results of this study clearly indicated that the extracts of Hugonia Mystax possess significant antioxidant activity and could be used as a potential source of natural antioxidant agent that may be due to the presence of phytochemicals.

Keywords: Hugonia Mystax, Antioxidant, Preliminary analysis.