Antioxidant Potentiality and HR-LCMS Profiling of Drought Tolerance Inducing Compounds from Groundnut Root Extracts

Background: In crop plants drought tolerance is influenced by the activation of acclimation programs, genotype-specific traits and the antioxidant system’s response to stress intensity. The objective of the present study was to identify drought tolerance eliciting and antioxidant metabolites of the groundnut (genotype GKVK-5) roots sequential extracts by performing in vitro antioxidant assays. Methods: The soxhlet method was used to prepare groundnut root extracts sequentially. After that, a phytochemical examination both qualitative and quantitative was conducted. HR-LCMS analysis was performed and the compounds were identified by comparing their retention time, mass, abundance area and m/z cloud best match in the Metlin Library. In vitro antioxidant activity was determined using assays for total antioxidant capacity, reducing power, DPPH radical scavenging, ABTS radical scavenging, metal chelating ability and nitric oxide radical scavenging. Result: HRLCMS analysis of ethyl acetate extract (REE) revealed antioxidant phenolic components, including gallic acid, quinic acid, azelaic acid, ferulic acid and phenylalanine. Methanol extract (RME) was shown to include bioactive compounds such as kaempferol 7-o-glucoside, naringenin 7-o-glucoside, resveratrol and L-2-amino-3-methylenehexanoic acid. Significant total antioxidant activity (194 µg/mg ascorbic acid) and high percentages of oxidative free radical inhibition in DPPH (63.69±2.85%), ABTS (71.31±2.09%) and metal chelating ion radical scavenging (66.31±5.56%) assays were demonstrated by the REE and these results are consistent with its total phenolic content (173.08 µg/mg). In accordance with its total flavonoid concentration (159.71 µg/mg), the RME showed remarkable reducing power (464 µg/mg) and efficient reduction of hydroxyl oxide radical (51.07±3.19%) and nitric oxide radical scavenging (67.08±5.97%). This study suggests that the drought tolerance characteristic of groundnut genotype GKVK-5 may be influenced by the combined effects of antioxidants and the total reductive capacity of metabolites.