Determination of phytochemical constituents and antioxidant activity in cleome gynandra and cosmos caudatus / Farah Izzati Abdul Malek

Cosmos caudatus and Cleome gynandra are herbal plants that commonly known for their beneficial effects on human health. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine quantitatively the compositions of phytochemical constituents and antioxidant properties of the crude extract of C. gynandra and C. caudatus leaves. The extraction of phytochemical constituents of these plants were carried out by sequential extraction using different polarities of solvents started with hexane, chloroform and methanol. The types of phytochemical constituents are determined through phytochemical screening. Both herbal plants shows positive result on the presence of flavonoid, alkaloids and phenol which contributed to antioxidant activity. Antioxidant activities were assessed by using DPPH scavenging method. Both methanolic extract of C. caudatus and C. gynandra gave the highest percentage yield which is 40.5% and 32.3% that indicates the presence of bioactive compounds which contributes in antioxidant activity. Meanwhile, the scavenging capacities in C. caudatus and C. gynandra are the highest at 85.5% and 76.3% in methanol extract indicating the high antioxidant activities. The higher the scavenging capacities the higher the antioxidants activities in these plants. The presence of antioxidant compounds were detected by using HPLC analysis. The highest peak on C. gynandra and C. caudatus chromatogram is at r = 3.144 min and 3.162 min may indicate detection of secondary metabolites in these plants.