COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PHYTOCHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS, FREE RADICAL SCAVENGING ACTIVITY AND GC-MS ANALYSIS OF LEAF AND FLOWER EXTRACT OF TITHONIA DIVERSIFOLIA (HEMSL.) A. GRAY

The secondary plant metabolites possess therapeutic value, thus play a significant role in human health and general wellbeing. The present study aimed to estimate the secondary metabolite concentration and to evaluate the antioxidant potential of Tithonia diversifolia leaf and flower extract in methanol. The phytochemical compounds in the extracts were characterized through Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. The leaf extract exhibited sixteen bioactive compounds, and flower extract revealed thirteen compounds with valuable activity. The major phytocompounds in leaf extract were pentacosane (22.01%), gamma- sitosterol (15.80%) and pentatriacontane (11.95%) whereas in flower extract showed methyl linolelaidate (19.55%), methyl palmitate (18.73%), 1- dotriacontanol (15.35%), 5- eicosene, (E)- (11.90%). The compounds were found to be dissimilar in both leaf and flower. Quantitative phytochemical analysis of leaf extract was found to contain a high concentration of phenols, flavonoids and saponins, whereas total alkaloids were maximum in flower extract. In in-vitro, the antioxidant activity was evaluated using 1, 1-diphenyl-2- picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. Both leaf and flower extract showed remarkable antioxidant scavenging activity with an IC₅₀ value of 120.264 µg/ml and 121.7µg/ml, respectively. The findings of this study provide an insight into the phytochemistry and antioxidant property of methanol extract of leaf and flower of T. diversifolia. Such properties may be of great importance in alleviating the chronic effect of oxidative stress, and it can be recommended as a plant of pharmaceutical importance.