Assessment of Antioxidant Potential of Trillium govanianum Wall. ex D. Don, a Critically Endangered Medicinal Plant of Northwestern Indian Himalaya

Abstract

Trillium govanianum (Nagchhatri) Wall ex D. Don, an economically important herbaceous medicinal plant of Indian Himalayan Region having anti-cancerous properties, is being commonly extracted by the local peoples for commercial purpose. In the present study, total phenolic and flavonoid contents in the methanol extracts of rhizomes, stems and leaves of T. govanianum plants collected from different populations were quantified. The methanol extracts were further evaluated for its antioxidant potential using in vitro assay, namely DPPH, ABTS and FRAP. The results showed that total phenolic (mg GAE/g fw) and flavonoid (mg QE/g fw) contents ranged 0.77–2.72 and 1.31–2.56 in leaf, 0.06–0.64 and 0.15–0.97 in stem, and 0.32–0.80 and 0.28–0.32 in rhizome, respectively, among the studied populations. The results further showed that DPPH, ABTS and FRAP activities were maximum in the methanol extracts of rhizome (16.06 mMAAE/g fw), leaf (4.39 mMAAE/g fw) and stem (2.17 mMAAE/g fw) among the tested populations, respectively. Biochemical properties of this plant varied significantly due to location of population (P < 0.05). From this study, it can be concluded that the high-altitude population of tested plants could be used as a rich source of natural antioxidants and should be conserved by using conventional and biotechnological methods. © 2019, The National Academy of Sciences, India.