Phytochemical Screening and Comparative Antioxidant Activities of Fractions Isolated from Sonneratia caseolaris (Linn.) Bark Extracts

Aims: Our study was carried out to appraise the phytochemical screening and antioxidant potentials of Sonneratia caseolaris (Linn.) bark extracts.

Study Design: For the purpose of this experiment the extracts were subjected for an in-vitro study.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out in August 2014 in the Department of Pharmacy, Southeast University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Methodology: The various fractions of Sonneratia caseolaris (Linn.) barks as Ethanolic (ETF), ethyl acetate (EAF), chloroform(CLF) and pet ether (PTF) fractions-were obtained after extraction were subjected to preliminary phytochemical screening. The antioxidant capacity of these fractions were evaluated using 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging assay .Total antioxidant activity and total phenolic content of ETF, EAF, CLF and PTF extracts of S. caseolaris were determined.

Results: The phytochemical screening showed the presence of flavonoid, steroid, tannin compounds in large amounts. In DPPH scavenging assay among the extracts, ethanolic fractions exhibited the highest radical scavenging activity with IC50 of 4.57 μg /ml .The highest phenolic content was found in EAF extracts (63.00 mg of GAE / g. of dried extract) followed by CLF (36.25 mg of GAE / g. of dried extract) and PTF (26.28 mg of GAE /g. of dried extract). The highest total antioxidant activity was also found in ETF fraction (185 GAE/g of dried sample followed by EAF fraction (99.00GAE/g of dried sample), PTF (84.00 GAE/g of dried sample) and Chloroform (49.00 GAE/g of dried sample).

Conclusion: Our result demonstrates that all the extractives of S. caseolaris have appreciable antioxidant activities. But, further study is necessary to isolate the active compounds.