Changes in phytochemical contents in different parts of Clinacanthus nutans (Burm. f.) lindau due to storage duration

Abstract

Clinacanthus nutans is a well recognized medicinal herb for its high phytochemical contents. Several aspects may contribute to the phytochemical contents, and thus determine the quality and efficacy of an herb. An experiment was conducted using a completely randomized design (CRD) with five replications, in a factorial arrangement of treatments. including two plant parts harvested at two different stages such as young leaves, young stems, matured leaves and matured stems, and four different storage durations such as 1, 2, 3 and 4 days. The study was aimed at determining how storage duration affects selected phytochemical contents of different plant parts of C. nutans at different harvesting stages. Total phytochemical content, total flavonoids content and DPPH radical scavenging activities are higher in young plants than in old plants, moreover, all those compounds are higher in leaves than in stems, and decrease gradually due to storage. Phytochemical, ascorbic acid and chlorophyll content of C. nutans differ among different plant parts and change due to storage. In general, young plant parts contain higher amount of phytochemicals, ascorbic acid and chlorophyll compared with matured parts confirming that phytochemicals content of C. nutans decreases when plants tend to maturity. Prolonged storage reduces phytochemical, ascorbic acid and chlorophyll content of C. nutans,which demands fresh use of this medicinal herb to avoid phytochemical losses. Further research focusing on the proper storage is necessary to minimize phytochemicals losses of C. nutans.

A Review of Therapeutic Potentials of Clinacanthus nutansas Source for Alternative Medicines

“…Another factor that may affect DPPH inhibition is extract storage duration. According to Raya et al (2015), DPPH inhibition of aqueous ethanolic extracts of C. nutans was drastically reduced by 69.97% from first day to four days of storage duration. Several other studies on DPPH inhibition have also been conducted.…”

Flavonoid Accumulation Behavior in Response to the Abiotic Stress: Can a Uniform Mechanism Be Illustrated for All Plants?

“…Furthermore, the influence of different plant parts, developmental storage and storage durations (1, 2, 3 and 4 days) [66], different temperature and sampling days [67], different storage days [68], Light (photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) level and maturity [69] examined to indicate that the there is no constant stability or dynamics of flavonoid content and its compounds in quantity and quality.…”

Determination of Phenolic and Flavonoid Contents, Antioxidant Activities and GC-MS Analysis of Clinacanthus nutans (Acanthaceae) in Different Locations

“…From the observation, C. nutans had been regularly being collected at the juvenile stage and the purpose of cultivation was for medicinal and research purposes. Thus, we had collected C. nutans at the juvenile stage (3 to 4 months) since a previous study had been conducted by Raya et al (2015) that showed younger leaves of C. nutans produced high DPPH radical scavenging activities and total flavonoid as well as high phytochemical contents than older leaves of C. nutans.…”