Exploring the antioxidant activity of root extracts of Heliotropium indicum L.

Abstract

Medicinal plants are used to treat several illnesses linked to oxidative stress. The herbaceous annual plant Heliotropium indicum L. is found in Asia and is widely used in traditional medicine. The investigation aimed to evaluate the antioxidant properties of five solvent extracts (hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, methanol, and aqueous) of Heliotropium indicum L. roots. The antioxidant compounds in the ethyl acetate extract were also identified. The ethyl acetate root extract demonstrated significant antioxidant properties in DPPH radical scavenging and reducing power assays. Shimadzu-QP2020 GC-MS was used to assess the phytochemical composition of the ethyl acetate root extract. The extract contained chemicals whose mass spectra matched those in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) library. Conventionally, the combined analytical method of gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) is employed to identify and ascertain the substances in the sample. The functional groups in the ethyl acetate extract were analyzed by FTIR spectroscopy. The GC-MS analysis of ethyl acetate root extract identified forty-two compounds in total, with the highest area percentage (23.11%) being Cholesta-22,24-dien-5-ol, 4,4-dimethyl- and the lowest area percentage (0.26%) being 7,9-Di-tert-butyl-1-oxaspiro (4,5) deca-6,9-diene-2,8-dione. The GC-MS investigation revealed twelve major compounds. This work is the first to report on the antioxidant, statistical analysis using ANOVA and Post-hoc Tukey’s HSD test (SPSS 27.0 software), GC-MS, and FTIR analyses of Heliotropium indicum L. ethyl acetate root extract. The current study offers a foundation for natural chemicals that are safer and less expensive to combat illnesses linked to oxidative stress.