A Folk Medicine: Passiflora incarnata L. Phytochemical Profile with Antioxidant Potency

Turk J Pharm Sci. 2022 Jun 27;19(3):287-292. doi: 10.4274/tjps.galenos.2021.88886.

Abstract

Objectives: Passiflora incarnata L., commonly called folk medicine declaredly used for an enormous range of therapeutic purposes, one such is antioxidant potency. The study prioritized to determine the phytochemical analysis of total phenolics, flavonoids, alkaloids, and tannins contents as well as the antioxidant properties through 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) quenching assay, 2,2-azino-bis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) cation decolorization test, superoxide, and hydrogen peroxide radical scavenging assays of ethanol extract of P. incarnata leaves.

Materials and methods: The organoleptic characteristics such as color, odor, appearance, taste, and other characters such as drying range and fiber contents were analyzed as preliminary data. Analytical parameters like total phenolic content, total tannins, total alkaloid content, and total flavonoid with multiple antiradical scavenging activity (DPPH, ABTS, superoxide and H2O2 scavenging assays) with IC50 (μg/mL) in terms of inhibition percentage with various concentrations of the ethanolic extract studied.

Results: P. incarnata possessed a high radical scavenging activity with a phenolic content of 2.48 mg gallic acid equivalent/g of extract in leaves, whereas the total flavonoid content was 2.1, respectively.

Conclusion: High antioxidant activity was noticed in P. incarnata extract, in which might be of higher levels of flavonoids and phenols. Findings in the studies revealed that P. incarnata is a veritable source for antioxidant drug bioprospecting in scientific research and pharmaceutical industries.

Keywords: ABTS; DPPH; Passiflora incarnata; antioxidant activity; phytochemical profile; radical scavenging activity.