Tentative qualitative and quantitative analysis of phenolic compounds in leaf extract from Carica papaya Linn. plant growing in Uganda

Abstract

Introduction: Carica papaya L. belongs to Caricaceae family. It is an evergreen tree or shrub with usually unbranched trunk. Previous studies on the methanolic leaf extract of this plant proved the antibacterial, cytotoxic, anticancer and antioxidant effects indicative of promising therapeutic potentials. Methods: Chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques along with high performance liquid chromato- graphy quantitative analysis were performed to isolate, tentatively identify and quantify polyphenolic com-pounds in MeOH extract of C. papaya leaves. UHPLC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS and UHPLC-DAD methods were adopted for qualitative and quantitative analysis respectively. In the case of polyphenol separation, some reference substances were isolated by preparative HPLC. Results: Six polyphenols were isolated and quantified from C. papaya leaf extract, including three phenolic acids: derivatives of caffeic acid, p-coumaric acid, ferulic acid and three flavonoids: quercetin dirhamnosyl-hexoside, kaempferol dirhamnosyl-hexoside, quercetin 3-O-rutinoside. Among them quercetin dirhamno-syl-hexoside was significantly higher (1.9 mg/g extract) than other identified compounds. Conclusion: The results of present study provide a new data on polyphenols composition of C. papaya plant derived from Uganda and promote research on its possible standardization and use as a dietary supplement and/or herbal medicine.