Studies on Flavonoid, Polyphenol Content and Antioxidant Activity of Medicinal and Poisonous Plants from Nepal

Surya K. Kalauni1*, Lokendra Karki1, Suresh Awale2
¹Central Department of Chemistry, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal
²Division of Natural Drug Discovery, Department of Translational Research, Institute of Natural Medicine, University of Toyama, 2630 Sugitani, Toyama 930-0194, Japan.

A B S T R A C T
Antioxidants are compounds that protect cells against the damaging effects of reactive oxygen species. The higher antioxidant property of plant species is mainly due the active constituents like phenol and flavonoids present in them. Nepal is rich in biodiversity containing more than fifteen hundred high valuable medicinal plant. So, the ethanol extract of fourteen species of medicinal plants collected from Eastern and Central part of Nepal were evaluated for their Polyphenol, flavonoids and antioxident activity. Among them Rhododendron setosum showed highest flavonoid content and Senna fistula contain highest polyphenol content with value155.0 mg QE/g and 105.3 mg GAE/g respectively. Similarly Ophihlossum reticulatum showed the highest antioxidant activity with IC₅₀ value of 10.73 μg/mL.
Keywords: Medicinal plants, Antioxidant, Polyphonols and Flavonoids