TLC BASED PHYTOCHEMICAL AND ANTIOXIDANT ANALYSIS OF OXALIS CORNICULATA LINN.

Abstract

Nature has been a source of medicinal agents for thousands of years and since the beginning of the man. Thus India has a great wealth of traditional knowledge and wealth for Ayurveda. The antioxidant activity of medicinal plants is mainly related to their bioactive compounds, such as phenolics, flavonols, and flavonoids. Preliminary phytochemical analysis of aqueous and methanolic extracts of Oxalis corniculata revealed the presence of carbohydrates, alkaloids, flavonoids, glycosides, saponin, tannins, fixed oil and fats. The results of present investigation showed that 25-75% of major Oxalis corniculata resolved by means of TLC were active antioxidants supporting the previous studies of Oxalis corniculata. The extracts of Oxalis corniculata showed several resolved TLC bands with strong antioxidant activity of resolved bands (75%) showed strong antioxidant activity and few spots with weak antioxidant activity of resolved bands. However, aqueous extracts of Oxalis corniculata showed faint spots.