Free radical scavenging activ-ity of various extracts of whole plant of Pavetta indica (Linn) : An in-vitro evaluation

Abstract

The study was designed to examine the in vitro antioxidant activities of various extracts of aerial parts of Pavetta indica. The antioxidant activity was evaluated by superoxide anion scavenging activity and nitric oxide scavenging activity with reference standard Quercetin, and ascorbate respectively and estimate the amount of total phenol. The methanolic extract of Pavetta indica   was found to more effective in the superoxide anion scavenging activity. The IC₅₀ of the methanolic extract of Pavetta indica   and quercetin were found to be 190µg/ml and 60µg/ml respectively. An IC₅₀ value was found that methanolic extract of Pavetta indica   is more effective in scavenging nitric oxide radical than that of ethyl acetate and petroleum ether extract. But when compare to the all the three extracts with ascorbate (standard), the methanolic extract of the Pavetta indica   showed the similar result. In addition, the methanolic extract of Pavetta indica   was found to contain noticeable amount of total phenols, which play a major role in controlling antioxidants.  It is concluded that a aerial parts of methanolic extract of Pavetta indica, which contains large amounts of phenolic compounds, exhibits high antioxidant and free radical scavenging activities. These in vitro assays indicate that this plant extracts is a significant source of natural antioxidant, which might be helpful in preventing the progress of various oxidative stresses.