Depending on some of the phytochemical activities of glycyrrhiza uralensis roots from various solvents

Abstract

The licorice (Glycyrrhiza uralensis) is one of the Mongolian traditional useful medicinal plants. The roots and rhizomes are rich in antioxidant compounds, such as flavonoids and phenolics, as well as triterpenoids, which play a major role in the stabilization and inactivity of free radicals resulting from physiological oxidation processes. The aim of this study was to identify the phytochemical characteristics, such as antioxidant activity, total flavonoid, and phenolic compounds in different extraction of licorice root samples. The plant materials antioxidant and some chemical compounds differ based on their extracted solvents. So we have done some phytochemical studies on root samples of licorice with 7 different solvents such as distilled water, ethanol, methanol, ethylacetate, chlorophorm, hexane, and toluene. The antioxidant activity, total flavonoids and total phenolic compounds were investigated by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryldydrazyl (DPPH) radical-scavenging assay, aluminium nitrate colorimetric method and Folin-Ciocalteu reagent assay, respectively. The highest antioxidant activity, total flavonoid and total phenolic compounds were in sample which extracted with ethanol, methanol and water. However, lowest results showed with hexane-extracted samples. There have correlation between the results of antioxidant activity, total flavonoids and total phenolic compounds with the extraction from different solvents. The flavonoids and phenolic compounds were more concentrated in the methanol; furthermore, it was appropriate to select methanol solvent in a detailed study.