Abstract

This study was intended to investigate the antioxidant activities of different solvent fractions (hexane (HEX), chloroform (CHL), ethylacetate (ETHYL) and methanol (MET) fractions) of methanol extract of Andrographis paniculata and GC-MS profiling of the most active fraction (MET). The crude methanol extract was fractionated using vacuum liquid chromatography method. Antioxidant activity was evaluated using total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), total antioxidant capacity (TAC), ferric reducing antioxidant potential (FRAP) and 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2, 2-azobis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonate (ABTS), and Nitric oxide (NO) radical scavenging abilities. GC-MS was conducted to determine phytochemical present in methanol fraction. The results indicated that MET possessed significantly (p < 0.05) higher TPC (33.98 ±1.63 mg GAE/g), TFC (15.81 ± 0.9 5mg QUE/g), TAC (21.44 ± 0.29 mg AAE/g) and FRAP (57.87 ± 0.88 mg Fe²⁺/g) than the other fractions. Also, MET exhibited the highest scavenging (ABTS, DPPH and NO) abilities of all the fractions. The GC-MS profiling of methanol fraction showed abundance presence of 2, 5- octadecadienoic-methyl ester and hexadecanoic acid-methyl ester. In conclusion, various fractions of A. paniculata have antioxidant abilities and could be used in diseases associated with free radicals.

Key words: Andrographis paniculata, antioxidant, solvent-fractions, GC-MS.