Free radical scavenging activity from different extracts of leaves of Bauhinia vahlii Wight & Arn.

The objectives of this study were to determine phenolic content and antioxidant activities of chloroform, acetone, methanol and hot water extracts of Bauhinia vahlii leaves. The hot water extract afforded the highest yield (6.3%) while the lowest yield was obtained from the chloroform extract (2.1%). The methanol extract contains higher levels of total phenolics (48.7 ± 0.7 g GAE/100 g extract), tannins (21.7 ± 0.7 g GAE/100 g extract) and flavonoids (10.3 ± 0.2 RE/100 g extract). The extracts were subjected to assess their antioxidant potential using various in vitro systems such as DPPH, ABTS⁺, FRAP, OH, β-carotene linoleic acid bleaching system, phosphomolybdenum reduction and Fe²⁺ chelation. It is concluded that the methanolic extract of B. vahlii leaves have strong antioxidant potential. Further study is necessary for isolation and characterization of the active antioxidants, which may serve as a potential source of natural antioxidants.