Phytochemical characterization of methanolic extract of Cichorium intybus and its In-vitro antioxidant potential

This study explored the antioxidant potential of ethno-medicinally valuable species, namely, Cichorium intybus of north-western Himalayan region. The leaves of this plant were subjected to extraction using methanolic solvent. The leaves were found to possess higher values of total flavonoids and total phenolic content. The phytochemical screening confirmed the presence of tannins, saponins, flavonoids, terpenoids and cardiac glycoside. In vitro antioxidant studies were performed in terms of chelation power on ferrous ions and FRAP assay and DPPH assay. The methanolic extract of leaves was found to harbour better chelating capacity (42% at 100 ig/ml) and reducing power (FRAP value 1085.4 ± 0.11 |MFe3+/g dry wt.) than all the other extracts. The crude methanol extract was thus further partitioned with solvents to yield five fractions. Antioxidant study of fractions suggested that the methanol fraction possessed significant chelation capacity (49.7% at 100 ig/ml) and reducing power with FRAP value of 523 ± 1.13 |M/g dry wt. Therefore, it can be concluded that Cichorium intybus leaves would be a valuable candidate in pharmaceutical formulations due to their biochemical, phytochemical and antioxidant composition and would play an important role in improving human, livestock and poultry health by participating in the antioxidant defense system against endogenous free radicals.