Abstract:
Natural antioxidants present in plants have attracted interest because of their safety and potential nutritional and therapeutic effects. The plant kingdom offers a wide range of natural antioxidants. The HPTLC fingerprinting was done for methanolic extracts of Argyreia speciosa leaves and Mesua ferrea flowers. The solvent system developed were Chloloroform: Methanol:Ethyl acetate:: 9:1.1:0.5 and Chloloroform: Methanol:: 9:1 for Argyreia speciosa and Mesua ferrea respectively. For Argyreia speciosa the prominent Rf and area % obtained were 0.79 and 42.51 at 200 nm; 0.87 and 25.63 at 250 nm; 0.88 and 16.33 at 300 nm; 0.85 and 11.53 at 350 nm; 0.12 and 11.93 at 400 nm; 0.12 and 12.62 at 450 nm and for Mesua ferrea the prominent Rf and area % obtained were 0.89 and 20.73 at 200 nm; 0.89 and 15.70 at 240 nm; 0.78 and 15.98, 0.90 and 12.58 at 280 nm; 0.15 and 10.68, 0.30 and 22.37 at 320 nm; 0.29 and 20.49 at 400 nm. The Total antioxidant capacity of Argyreia speciosa was found to be 108.33 ± 1.59 and of Mesua ferrea was 91.67 ± 2.16. The percentage Inhibition (IC50) of Argyreia speciosa was 168.46 ± 1.03 μg /ml and of Mesua ferrea was 300.01 ± 1.59 μg / ml in DPPH free radical scavenging activity. In scavenging of superoxide radical by alkaline DMSO method IC50 of Argyreia speciosa was 148.63 μg / ml and of Mesua ferrea was 273.56 μg / ml. In scavenging of hydrogen peroxide method IC50 of Argyreia speciosa and Mesua ferrea were 30.47 μg / ml and 21.70 μg / ml respectively.