PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING, TOTAL PHENOLIC AND FLAVONOIDS CONTENTS AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITIES OF CITRULLUS COLOCYNTHIS L. AND CANNABIS SATIVA L.

Abstract

Citrullus colocynthis L. and Cannabis sativa L. are well known herbs for their curative value and farming applications. Thus, extraction was performed to examine yield, total phenolic, flavonoids content and antioxidant activities for farming exertions. Qualitative analyses were conducted to scrutinize alkaloids, glycosides, terpenoids, flavonoids, flavones, steroids, tannins, phenols, saponins and quantitative analysis for total phenolic and flavonoids content was assessed by Folin-Ciocalteu and aluminium chloride colourimetric method respectively, while antioxidant activities was assessed by using 1, 1-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl. Results showed that distilled water afforded the maximum extract yield followed by methanol and ethanol thus, coefficient of determination (R 2 ) of extract yield present a positive correlation compared to root mean square error (RMSE). Phytoconstituents except terpenoids from C. sativa and C. colocynthis leaves were reported while, in contrast, steroids, tannins and phenols were absent in C. colocynthis roots. The methanol derived maximum phenolic contents from C. sativa and C. colocynthis leaves were 36.42 and 37.69 mg gallic acid equivalent GAE/g respectively. However, total flavonoids registered from C. sativa leaves and C. colocynthis leaves and roots were 59.03, 50.58 and 43.32 mg quercetin equivalent QE/g respectively. Interestingly, C. colocynthis leaves produced the highest flavonoids 119.63 mg QE/g using ethyl acetate extract. DPPH inhibition (%) was high in acetone 55.57, hexane 45.98 and distilled water 35.5% from C. sativa, C. colocynthis leaves and roots respectively. Our findings suggest that studied plants contain phytochemicals, reasonable quantity of phenol and flavonoids content confer to the potential antioxidant activity responsible for insecticidal properties as safer alternatives of synthetic pesticides.