Abstract:
Introduction: Polyphenols and flavonoids have an array of health-promoting benefits; they are of current interest due to their vital biological and pharmacological properties including the possible role in preventing cardiovascular diseases and cancer. The geographical location is an important determinant in the collection of plants for preparation of polyphenol rich extracts for a wide array of medicinal applications such as development of novel therapeutic agents and/or nutraceuticals. Objective: To determine and compare the total polyphenol and flavonoid content of aqueous leaves extract of the Ivy Gourd - Coccinia grandis (L.) Voigt (Family: Cucurbitaceae) collected from Central, Northern, Southern and Western provinces. Method: The plant material in flowering age, was collected from different provinces, oven dried (40 °C) and subjected to ultrasonication (240W, 35kHz) for 20 min, followed by refluxing for 180 min. The solid: liquid ratio was kept as 20 g of C. grandis leaves in 325 mL of distilled water. The resulting extracts were freeze dried and used to quantify total polyphenols and flavonoids using Folin-Ciocalteu and aluminum chloride method with gallic acid and quercertin as reference compounds respectively. The values are expressed as mean ± standard deviation. The data were analyzed using ANOVA, followed by Tukey HSD to compare relevant means. Results: The total polyphenol and flavonoid contents were in the range of 27.62±0.42-35.77 ±0.36 mg of GAE/g of extract and 6.14±0.09- 7.94 ±0.08mg of QE/g of extract respectively. The plant material collected from the Northern province has the highest polyphenol and flavonoid content. A statistically significant difference (p<0.05) was found in total polyphenol and flavonoid content of C. grandis collected from Northern and Central provinces. Conclusions: The results revealed that there is no statistical difference in total polyphenol and flavonoid content of C. grandis collected from selected geographical locations except in the plant samples collected from Northern and Central provinces. Based on the quantification results, C. grandis has a considerably high polyphenol and flavonoid content which might be beneficial in development of polyphenol-based herbal therapeutic agents/nutraceuticals.
