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ANTIOXIDANT POTENTIALS OF PARTHENIUM HYSTEROPHORUS L
LEAF EXTRACTS

Sankar Narayan Sinha*, Dipak Paul


ABSTRACT
Aim: Synthetic drugs are potentially toxic and are not free from side effects on the host. Therefore an
attempt has been made to study the antioxidant activity of plants. As plants and plant-based drugs are
less toxic and have acceptable side effects, hence in the present study the crude extracts of leaf of
Parthenium hysterophorus L were selected to study antioxidant activity. Methodology: The plant
extracts were prepared by using methanol and the activity was determined by DPPH and ABTS
scavenging assays. Results And Conclusion: It was found that this extract has considerable
antioxidant activity. Phytochemical analysis indicated the presence of flavonoids, tannins, phenolic
compounds, steroids, terpenoids, alkaloids and proteins along with other chemicals.
Key Words: Antioxidant activity, DPPH radical scavenging assay, Parthenium hysterophorus

INTRODUCTION
An antioxidant is a molecule that inhibits the
oxidation of other chemical substances. During
oxidation process transfers of electrons or
hydrogen from a substance to an oxidizing
agent occurs. Oxidation reactions can generate
free radicals which later on can start chain
reactions. When the chain reaction takes place
in a cell, cells may be damaged or dead.
Antioxidants inhibit and stop these chain
reactions by removing intermediary free
radicals, and terminate other oxidation
reactions. They act by being oxidized
Scientific Research Journal of India Volume: 3, Issue: 2, Year: 2014
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themselves, so usually antioxidants are
reducing agents such as ascorbic acid,
polyphenols, thiols etc.
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are major free
radicals generated in many redox processes,
which may cause oxidative damage to
biomolecules, including proteins, sugars, lipids
and DNA. Reactive oxygen species have an
impact on living cells, which help the
pathogenesis of several chronic diseases
1-7
.
The action of ROS is opposed by a balanced
system of antioxidant compounds produced in
vivo
8-10
. Endogenous antioxidants are
insufficient, and dietary antioxidants are
required to counter measure excess ROS
11
.
Hence there has been an increased interest in
the food industry and in preventive medicine in
the development of Natural antioxidants from
plant materials.
Parthenium hysterophorus Linn, also known as
carrot grass, congress grass, chatak chandini.
This plant was accidently introduced in India as
contaminants in PL-480 wheat imported from
the USA in the 1950s
12
. Plant used as an
analgesic in neuralgia, antipyretic tonic,
febrifuge and its root decoction was helpful in
amoebic dysentery. The leaf extracts have a
role in the fertility, fecundity and behavioral
response
13
. The whole plant possesses the
various pharmacological activities such as
anticancer activity on A549 cell line
14
, skeletal
muscle relaxant activity
15
and hypoglycaemic
activity
16
.
Though the plant is regarded as the allergy
causing agent and develop asthma, the study on
this herb as an alternative of antimicrobial
agents is still limited. Since Parthenium
hysterophorus are known with the herbs with
wide uses, this study therefore set out to assess
the antioxidant potentials and to determine the
phytochemical constituents of methanol extract
of the leaves of this plant.

Plant Description
Parthenium hysterophorus is a much-branched,
annual, erect herbaceous plant which forms a
basal rosette of leaves during initial phase of
growth. The height of the plant is 0.5-1.5 m,
but can occasionally reach up to 2 m or more.
Mature hirsute stems are greenish and
longitudinally grooved and become much
branched at maturity.
Leaves simple, petiolate of growth, lower
leaves relatively large (3-30 cm long and 2-12
cm wide) and are deeply divided. Leaves on the
top branches decrease in size and are also less
deeply divided than the lower leaves. Short,
stiff hairs are present in the lower surface of the
leaves, and to some extent upper surfaces.
Numerous small, white or creamy pedicellate
flowers are arranged in clusters (capitula).
Seeds are achenes, 1.5-2.5 mm long usually
with two or three small scales (a pappus)
produced in each flower-head (capitulum)
(Figure 1).

Taxonomic position of Parthenium
hysterophorus
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Asterales
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Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Parthenium
Species: P. hysterophorus

Figure 1: Parthenium hysterophorus Linn

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Collection of Plant Material
The fresh leaves of Parthenium hysterophorus
Linn was collected from Kalyani, West Bengal
(India) in the month of July, 2012 and the plant
was identified and authenticated.

Preparation of extracts
For the preparation of methanolic extract, the
leaves of Parthenium hysterophorus Linn was
cleaned, air dried and grinded into coarse
powder. 50 gm powder was packed into the
soxhlet extractor with methanol (170ml). The
extract was concentrated and dried by using
rotary evaporator and the extract was stored in
a refrigerator at 4
0
C.

Phytochemical Screening
The methanol extract of Parthenium
hysterophorus was studied for their
phytoconstituents using different
phytochemical tests
17
.
Antioxidant activity
1. Free radical-scavenging ability by the use
of a stable DPPH radical
The DPPH radical-scavenging activity was
determined using the method proposed by Yen
and Chen
18
.

2. Free radical-scavenging ability by the use
of a stable ABTS radical cation
The free radical-scavenging activity was
determined by ABTS radical cation
decolourization assay
19
.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Results of phytochemical screening are shown
in Table 1. The leaves extract tested positive
for flavonoids, tannins and phenolic
compounds in both aqueous and methanolic
extract. The methanolic leaves extract
contained alkaloids and proteins, whereas, the
aqueous extract contained steroids and
terpenoids.
Phenolic compounds are important
phytoconstituents and have potential against
different disease because of their antioxidant
properties
20
. They are known to possess anti-
diarrheal, anti-inflammatory, antiulcer, anti-
secretary, anti-spasmodic, antitumor activities
and antiviral activities
21
. Radical scavenging
via hydrogen atom donation by phenols is
Scientific Research Journal of India Volume: 3, Issue: 2, Year: 2014
83
believed to be the predominant mechanism of antioxidant action.

Table 1: Qualitatively phytochemical analysis of Parthenium hysterophorus leaves extract
Test Reagents Observation Aqueous
extract
Methanolic
extract
Alkaloids Mayers reagent Creamy
precipitate
Negative Positive
Steroids Conc. H
2
SO
4
Reddish brown
precipitate
Positive Negative
Terpenoids Chloroform +
Conc. H
2
SO
4

Reddish brown
interface
Positive Negative
Flavonoids Alkaline reagent Yellow colour to
colourless
Positive Positive
Saponins Water+shake Foam formation Negative Negative
Phenolic
compounds
Alcohol+Ferric
chloride
Bluish green Positive Positive
Tannins Pb-acetate White
precipitate
Positive Positive
Proteins Conc. HNO
3
+
40% NaOH
Orange colour Negative Positive
Carbohydrates Barfoeds
reagent
Reddish brown
precipitate
Positive Positive
Amino acids Ninhydrine
reagent
Violet colour Positive Positive
Reducing sugar Benedicts
reagent
Red precipitate Positive Positive

84
The scavenging the stable DPPH radical is a
widely used method to evaluate the free radical
scavenging ability of various samples
22
which
can accommodate a large number of samples in
a short period of time and is sensitive enough to
detect natural compounds at low concentrations
so it was used in the present study for screening
of antioxidant activity. The present study
revealed that the radical- scavenging activities
of all the extracts increased with increasing
concentrations (Table 2).

Table 2: In vitro free radical scavenging activity of Parthenium hysterophorus leaves by DPPH method
Compounds % Scavenging IC
50

20g/ml 40g/ml 60g/ml 80g/ml 100g/ml
Standard
(Ascorbic acid)
6.30.52 16.20.92 29.90.76 33.80.84 48.60.32 54.410.22
Parthenium
hysterophorus
Linn
8.20.74 17.40.45 33.80.98 40.90.68 54.51.20 60.214.09

The ABTS scavenging assay, which employs a
specific absorbance (734 nm) at a wavelength
remote from the visible region and requires a
minimum reaction time and may be used as an
index that reflects the antioxidant activity of the
test samples
23
. In the following table (Table 3),
Parthenium hysterophorus extract was found to
be effective in scavenging radicals and the
increase was concentration-dependent. At
100g/ml, the inhibition of the extract was
93.2% (Table 3).

Table 3: In vitro free radical scavenging activity of Parthenium hysterophorus leaves by ABTS method
Compounds % Scavenging IC
50

20g/ml 40g/ml 60g/ml 80g/ml 100g/ml
Standard
(Ascorbic acid)
53.45.2 68.42.1 81.54.2 85.45.1 91.50.85 17.225.82
Scientific Research Journal of India Volume: 3, Issue: 2, Year: 2014
85
Parthenium
hysterophorus
Linn
45.83.8 56.26.01 68.82.4 78.63.05 93.20.72 33.610.6

CONCLUSIONS
Methanolic extracts of P. hysterophorus L.
showed significant antioxidant activity as
compared to the ascorbic acid. This might be
due to the presence of bioactive elements and
phenolic constituents present in the extract.
Based on the significant results obtained in this
study, further work is required for isolation and
purification of bioactive compounds so that
novel antioxidant drugs from this medicinal
plant can be exploited.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors are thankful to University of
Kalyani, West Bengal, India for providing
necessary facilities for doing this research.
Authors acknowledge the financial support
received under the grant from DST PURSE,
New Delhi, India for this study.

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CORRESPONDENCE
* Environmental Microbiology Research Laboratory, Department of Botany, University of Kalyani,
Kalyani-741235, West Bengal, India; Email: sinhasn62@yahoo.co.in

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