Identification of Bioactive Compounds, Phytochemical Quantification, and Antioxidant Potential of Argyreia lawii Methanolic Leaf Extract

The current research was designed to appraise the phytochemical profile, fluorescence analysis, and antioxidant activity and to identify the important bioactive compounds by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) in methanol leaf extract of Argyreia lawii C.B. Clarke. Using visible and ultraviolet light, leaf powder treated with different chemical reagents was examined for fluorescence analysis. The results of the various phytochemical screening tests reported the presence of 19 compounds in methanolic leaf extract. Quantitative analysis showed the highest content of phytochemicals in this order: Total Terpenoid > Tannin > Vitamin C > Alkaloids > Polyphenol. Additionally, the extract exhibited noteworthy levels of total flavonoids (158.5 ± 0.015 mg RE/g extract) and phenolic content (119.6 ± 0.004 mg GAE/g extract). With an IC50 value of 30.27 µl/ml and 50.54 µl/ml, the methanol leaf extract showed the best antioxidant activity for DPPH and ABTS tests, respectively. The GC-MS analysis identified forty-three bioactive phytochemical compounds, including methyl linolenate, pentadecanoic acid, 14-methyl-methyl ester, phytol, methyl laurate, methyl stearate, and campesterol. Thus, our findings suggest that the leaves may become a potential therapeutic source and may be important to future research into the pharmacological studies on the plant. To the best of our knowledge, our results serve as the first report to describe the phytochemical analysis and GC-MS profiling of Argyreia lawii for methanol extracts of leaves.