Abstract

Abstract : Capparis decidua fruits, commonly known as Kair, have been used in traditional herbal medicines since long to cure many ailments and disorders. Medicinal properties are due to the presence of various secondary metabolites. The present study relates to the phytochemical screening of kair fruits collected from Jodhpur district of Rajasthan, India for their biochemical assessment using standard qualitative tests which revealed presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, sterols and tannins. The determination of Total Phenol Content (TPC) and Total Flavonoid Content (TFC) was done using spectrophotometric methods. The TPC and TFC was estimated to be 38.25 ± 1.04 mg GAE/g and 18.58 ± 0.18 mg QE/g respectively, in the fruit extract on DW (dry weight) basis. Antioxidant activity was also determined by using DPPH free radical scavenging method which gave IC50 value as 67.5±3.43 (μg/mL). Quantitative estimation of flavonoids like Rutin and Quercetin was done by peak area measurement using RP-HPLC technique which gave the results as 0.32 and 0.16 ppm in the samples, respectively. Our results from above work opens a way for further phytochemical studies on these fruits in order to determine the key bioactive principles that can be beneficial to the Pharmaceutical industry.