Bioactive Components and Antioxidant Properties of Terminalia arjuna L.Extracts

Abstract

This work was carried out to investigate the antioxidant activity and free radical scavenging capacity of leaves and stem bark extracts of Terminalia arjuna (arjuna) prepared in aqueous ethanol (water: ethanol 20:80v/v) and aqueous methanol (water: methanol 20:80v/v) solvents. The extraction yields of extracts were ranged from 6.66-19.09g/100g (w/w) on dry weight basis. It was observed that arjuna extracts contained appreciable amount of TPC (6.02-11.00 g/100g, as gallic acid equivalent) and TFC (1.75-5.96 g/100g, as catechin equivalent) as well as exhibited good DPPH radical scavenging activity (IC 50 2.71-7.68 µg/ mL), inhibition of peroxidation (64.79-71.43%) and reducing power (0.001-1.584 mg/mL). The results of the present investigation clearly demonstrated the significant (p ≤ 0.05) variations in antioxidant properties of different solvent extracts of arjuna. It can be concluded from the results that arjuna extracts were good source of natural antioxidants.