PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING, FLAVONOID CONTENT AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF ETHANOLIC EXTRACT OF CEIBA PENTANDRA

Abstract

The seed of Ceiba pentandra collected from the rural area of Shirur, Pune district, were dried, milled and extracted with ether, ethanol and water. Phytochemical screening was carried out according to standard procedures. Carbohydrate & flavonoids, fixed oil, glycosides were found to be present in the aqueous, ether & alcoholic extract resp. Total Flavonoid content was determined by spectrophotometric methods and that was found to be 2.56 g & 2.20g quercetin equivalent per 100 g of ethanolic & water extract resp. In-vitro antioxidant activity of ethanolic seed extract of Ceiba pentandra was determined by DPPH free radical scavanging assay. All the analysis was made with the use of UV-Visible Spectrophotometer (Jasco V-530). The ethanolic seed extracts of Ceiba pentandra had shown very significant DPPH (1, 1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl) radical scavenging activity compared to standard antioxidant. The DPPH radical scavenging activity of the extract was increased with the increasing concentration. In DPPH free radical scavanging assay IC50 value of ethanolic seed extracts of Ceiba pentandra was found to be 50.33±5.29 as compared with standard ascorbic acid (44.93±2.92 μg/ml).