Gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy profiling of leaf extracts of Stachytarpheta urticifolia (Salisb) based on antioxidant activities

The Stachytarpheta urticifolia is one of the widely used herbs as folk medicine for treating various disorders by many tribal communities. Present study was to explore the antioxidant potential of S. urticifolia leaf that was extracted with solvents hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol. An antioxidant activity was studied by using previous published and established methods using ABTS, hydrogen peroxide and nitric oxide. Extracts possessing highest potential antioxidant activities were further profiled using gas chromatography and mass spectrophotometer instrumentation. S. utricifolia leaves have shown significant antioxidant potential with methanol extract having inhibition concentration values IC50 = 75.1 7± 0.4 μg/ml and IC50 = 110.05 ± 7.1 μg /ml for the ABTS and hydrogen peroxide tests respectively whereas as IC50 value was 79.01±2.02 μg/ml for the nitric oxide test. The outcome affirms the role of S. urticifolia as a good source of antioxidant agents. Methanolic extract of S. urticifolia leaves was further subjected for Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopic (GC–MS) analysis. In the GC-MS chromatogram, 15 compounds were obtained with the highest percentage of peak area of 44.15 and later identified as 0,0- Diethyl (1-formyl pentyl selenophosphate) with a retention time of 23.805 sec.