Phytochemical Analysis and Antioxidant Activity of Wild Pomegranate Collected from Patnitop, Jammu and Kashmir

Ramanjeet Kaur, Lubna Aslam, Nisha Kapoor and Ritu Mahajan

School of Biotechnology, University of Jammu, Jammu.

Corresponding Author E-mail: ritufeb@gmail.com

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/bbra/2637

ABSTRACT: Wild pomegranate is an ancient fruit with known medicinal and curative properties, attributing to overall positive health. The present study focuses on phytochemical analysis and the antioxidant potential of the fruits (red and green), leaves and flowers of wild pomegranate. High amount of carbohydrates and proteins were observed in red fruits, followed by green fruit, while they were low in flowers and leaves. However, leaves possessed higher amounts of phenolics and tannins as compared to other tissues and fruit extracts. Highest radical scavenging effect was observed in red fruit with EC50 value 70.33µg/ml as compared to other tissues. The ferric reducing potential was significantly higher in red fruit (310.99 ± 0.98 µmol Fe²⁺/ g dry matter) in comparison to green fruit extracts of wild pomegranate. The results indicated that methanolic extract of red fruits are pharmacologically more active and can be exploited for studying the pharmacokinetics of various bioactive compounds  present in wild pomegranate.

KEYWORDS: Antioxidants; Antioxidants; Phytochemicals; Secondary metabolites; Wild pomegranate

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