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

The objective of the present study was to estimate the total phenolic content as well as flavonoids in Amritarishta-T and Amritarishta-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 0.0954 and 0.0949%w/w gallic acid equivalent in Amritarishta-T and Amritarishta-M respectively. Total flavonoid content was determined by aluminium chloride method and was found 0.01142 and 0.01134%w/w quercetin equivalent in Amritarishta-T and Amritarishta-M respectively. Super-oxide anion scavenging activity and lipid per-oxidation assay were carried out to evaluate the antioxidant potential of Amritarishta-T and Amritarishta-M. The antioxidant activity of Amritarishta-T and Amritarishta-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. Amritarishta-T and Amritarishta-M showed significant scavenging of super-oxide radical and showed IC₅₀ 139.28 and 155.29 μg/ml respectively. Amritarishta-T and Amritarishta-M also inhibited the ferrous sulphate induced lipid per-oxidation in dose dependent manner and showed inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) 236.84 and 243.66 μg/ml respectively. Marketed Amritarishta 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 Amritarishta-T and Amritarishta-M can be a promising source of natural antioxidant.