Evaluation of TPC, TFC, and Antioxidant Activity of Extracts of Piper longum L.

Abstract

Medicinal plants have been crucial in treating various diseases since ancient times. This study focuses on identifying the phytochemicals in Piper longum L. extracts along with studying their biological activities. The powdered fruit of P. longum was sequentially subjected to ultrasonic extraction utilizing solvents with increasing polarity, starting from hexane and progressing through chloroform, ethyl acetate, and finally, methanol. The phytochemical analysis of extracts exhibited the presence of all tested classes of phytocompounds except saponins. The higher phenolic content (TPC) was observed in the methanol extract (53.38 mg GAE/g), whereas the chloroform extract had a TPC value of 8.51 mg GAE/g. Conversely, the chloroform extract exhibited a higher total flavonoid content (TFC) of 12.09 mg QE/g compared to the methanol extract's 7.44 mg QE/g. The antioxidant assay demonstrated the moderate antioxidant potential of the methanol extract. This study recommends further biological tests and experimental verifications to use this plant for drug discovery.