PGIS Research Congress

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Browsing PGIS Research Congress by Author "Aluthge, D. C."

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    Antioxidant potential of bark column fractions of Stereospermum suaveolens
    (Postgraduate Institute of Science (PGIS), University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, 2024-11-01) Thanusika, N.; Aluthge, D. C.
    Antioxidants are molecules that primarily slow down or prevent oxidation reactions. Their application in pharmacology is valuable to improve current treatments for diseases. Medicinal plants are a rich source of biologically active compounds such as flavonoids, phenolic compounds, etc., which may be responsible for their antioxidant activities. This study aimed to investigate the antioxidant activity of the column chromatographic fractions of crude extracts of Stereospermum suaveolens bark. The extraction was performed using ultrasound sonication, followed by fractionation with silica gel column chromatography. The antioxidant activity test was carried out using 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay with 200 μg/mL fraction solutions, and L-Ascorbic acid was used as the standard. Thin-layer chromatography was performed to analyse the chemical profile. Methanolic bark extracts of S. suaveolens yielded seven fractions, with radical scavenging percentages ranging from 13.22% to 82.51%. The test results further depicted that the third and fourth fractions possessed high antioxidant activities with the percentage radical scavenging activity of 82.51% and 56.27%, respectively, whereas other fractions showed weak antioxidant activities. However, the standard L-Ascorbic acid exhibited the highest antioxidant activity compared to bark fractions (92.83%). However, the radical scavenging activities of all active bark fractions were lower than that of L-Ascorbic acid as a positive control. The study concluded that most active fractions demonstrated good antioxidant activity, worthy for further study to isolate specific compound/s which is/are responsible for antioxidant activity.