ISSN 2169-303X
International Journal of Medicinal Plants Research ISSN 2169-303X Vol. 9 (2), pp. 001-008, February, 2020. © International Scholars Journals
Full Length Research Paper
Free radical quenching activity and polyphenols in three species of Coleus
Girish K Rasineni1, Dayananda Siddavattam2 and Attipalli R Reddy1*
1Department of Plant Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad - 500 046, India.
2Department of Animal Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad - 500 046, India.
Accepted 07 October, 2019
Abstract
Coleus is an important aromatic herb of the family Lamiaceae which is routinely grown as a traditional medicinal herb in India. We examined the total content of polyphenols, tannins, flavones and flavonols, their antioxidant and lipid peroxidation inhibition properties in leaf and stem tissues of three species of Coleus (Coleus forskholii Briq., Coleus aromaticus Benth. and Coleus zeylanicus Benth.) . Plant extracts of C. forskholii exhibited high amounts of polyphenols and higher antioxidant activity in the tissues compared to C. aromaticus and C. zeylanicus. The leaf extracts of C. forskholii showed significantly high amounts of total polyphenols (23.46 mg g-1 fw), flavones and flavonols (250.8 µg g-1 fw) and high antioxidant activity (12.29 mM g-1fw). HPLC profiling of leaf and stem tissues showed the presence of standard antioxidative polyphenols and more potent antioxidative polyphenols. Our results demonstrate that C. forskholii could be used as an important source of phenolic compounds with significantly high antioxidant activity.
Key words: Antioxidants, Coleus forskholii, Coleus aromaticus, Coleus zeylanica, polyphenols.