GC-MS Analysis and Antioxidant Activity of Spondias purpurea L (Anacardiaceae)

Background: There are ongoing efforts to identify the chemical composition of plants used as food or medicines in other to correlate their components with the numerous claims of their medicinal usefulness in folklore. Objective: This work is aimed at profiling the phytochemical composition of Spondias purpurea using GC-MS, as well as to determine the total phenolic content, total flavonoid content and the antioxidant capacity by DPPH radical scavenging assay. Methods: Whole fruit and stem bark of Spondias purpurea were collected, dried, extracted with methanol and concentrated in vacou before assessing them for their total phenolic content by Folin-Ciocalteu’s phenol reagent method; total flavonoid content and 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging activities. The whole fruit and stem bark extracts were partitioned into n-hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate and aqueous fractions. The n-hexane fraction of the stem bark and whole fruit were analyzed on GC-MS. Results: The stem bark had the highest phenolic content of 29.81± 1.18 GAE mg/g. Similarly, free radical scavenging activities assay showed the stem bark to be most active with IC₅₀ of 6.20 ± 1.51μg/ml, better than the standard, ascorbic acid with IC₅₀ of 11.51 ± 0.3μg/ml. The n-hexane partitioned fractions of the fruit and stem bark on GC-MS analysis showed 9 prominent compounds including 9,17-Octadecadienal (5.43%), 3-((4Z,7Z)-Heptadeca-4,7-dien-1-yl) phenol(12%), (Z)-3-(Heptadec-10-en-1-yl) phenol (11.76%), n-Hexadecanoic acid (7.07%) and 13 compounds including 9,17-Octadecadienal (20.51%),trans-13-Octadecenoic acid (12.61%), Pentadecanoic acid (8.3%), n-Hexadecanoic acid(15.24%). Conclusions: This study provides justification for some of the folkloric use of Spondias purpurea.