Preliminary phytochemical screening and antioxidant activities of solvent extracts from Daucus crinitus Desf., from Algeria

The presence of natural antioxidant in plants is well known. Plant phenolics constitute one of the major groups of components that act as primary antioxidant free radical terminators. This paper reports the antioxidative activity of methanolic and water extract of Daucus crinitus Desf. Phytochemical screening of the crude extracts of stems/leaves revealed the presence of different kind of chemical groups such as tannin, flavonoids, phenolic acids and coumarins. The amounts of total phenolics and flavonoids in the solvent extracts (methanol and water extract) were determined spectrometrically. From the analyses, methanolic extract had the highest total phenolic content (130.19 μg GA/mg extract) and antioxidant activity (89.82 %) using DPPH method. Increasing the concentration of the extracts resulted in increased ferric reducing antioxidant power for both extracts tested. Finally, a relationship was observed between the antioxidant activity potential and total phenolic and flavonoid levels of the extract.