Estimation of Total Phenolics and Flavonoids and Antioxidant Potential of Ashwagandharishta Prepared by Traditional and Modern Methods

The objective of the present study was to estimate the total phenolic content as well as flavonoids in Ashwagandharishta-T and Ashwagandharishta-M prepared by traditional and modern methods respectively and in its marketed preparation and also to evaluate the antioxidant activity of these test preparations on two different in vitro antioxidant activity models. Total phenolic content was determined colorimetrically using Folin-Ciocalteu reagent and was found 0.1068 and 0.1065 %w/w gallic acid equivalent in Ashwagandharishta-T and Ashwagandharishta-M respectively. Total flavonoid content was determined by aluminium chloride method and was found 0.01366 and 0.01315 %w/w quercetin equivalent in Ashwagandharishta-T and Ashwagandharishta-M respectively. Super-oxide anion scavenging activity and lipid per-oxidation assay were carried out to evaluate the antioxidant potential of Ashwagandharishta-T and Ashwagandharishta-M. The antioxidant activity of Ashwagandharishta-T and Ashwagandharishta-M was found increased in concentration dependent manner in both the in vitro antioxidant activity models as super-oxide radical scavenging activity and lipid per-oxidation assay. Ashwagandharishta-T and Ashwagandharishta-M showed significant scavenging of super-oxide radical and showed IC50 91.32 and 99.39 μg/ml respectively. Ashwagandharishta-T and Ashwagandharishta-M also inhibited the ferrous sulphate induced lipid peroxidation in dose dependent manner and showed inhibitory concentration (IC50) 181.88 and 191.05 μg/ml respectively. Marketed Ashwagandharishta also showed a rich concentration of total phenolics and flavonoids and showed dose dependent antioxidant activity in both the models. Thus, the results obtained in this study indicate that Ashwagandharishta-T and Ashwagandharishta-M can be a promising source of natural antioxidant.