Antioxidant activity of an ethnobotanically important plant Quisqualis indica Linn.

The antioxidant potential of leaf, stem, root and flower extracts of Quisqualis indica Linn. was assessed to verify its ethnopharmacological importance. Both polar and non-polar solvents like n-hexane, chloroform, ethanol and distilled water were used to obtain crude extracts. The chloroform extract of leaves showed the maximum %age yield, i.e. 27.3% while the n-hexane extract of stem showed the minimum yield, i.e. 0.2%. Five activities including DPPH free radical scavenging activity, ABTS+ assay, Total flavonoid components (TFC), Total phenolic components (TPC) and Metal chelating Assay (MC) were employed to evaluate the antioxidant activity of the plant. The ethanol extract of inflorescence of the plant displayed most elevated DPPH potential, i.e. 452.11%. Aqueous extract of root had highest value of TEAC i.e., 7.4515 mmol. The aqueous extract of flower displayed the highest level of phenolic contents with the value of 35 in terms of GAE mg/mL. On the other hand, the chloroform extract had the highest % bound iron value of 128 and the aqueous extract of flower showed a high concentration of Flavonoids having the value 347.65mg/l of Quercetin. It has been inferred that all parts of Quisqualis indica L. possess good antioxidant potential. Differents parts showed different antioxidant potentials hence they can be used as curative agents against human and animal ailments.