POLARITY RESOLVED PHYTOCHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION AND MULTI ASSAY IN VITRO ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF SUCCESSIVE SOLVENT EXTRACTS OF COMMIPHORA CAUDATA (WIGHT & ARN.) ENGL. OLEO GUM RESIN

Abstract

Commiphora caudata (Wight & Arn.) Engl. (Burseraceae) is an aromatic resinous tree in ayurvedic and regional folk medicine for inflammatory and metabolic ailments yet largely uncharacterized at the level of its primary medicinal tissue, the oleo gum resin. This study undertook a systematic polarity stratified extraction of the resin using four solvents of ascending polarity, hexane (HE), ethyl acetate (EAE), absolute ethanol (EE), and a hydroalcoholic mixture (HAE, 1:1 v/v), and subjected each fraction to comprehensive qualitative phytochemical screening, validated HPTLC fingerprinting with densitometric marker quantitation, and a four method in vitro antioxidant panel comprising DPPH radical scavenging, ABTS radical cation decolorization, nitric oxide (NO) scavenging, and phosphomolybdenum total antioxidant capacity (TAC) determination, supplemented by total phenolic content (TPC, Folin Ciocalteu) and total flavonoid content (TFC, AlCl₃ colorimetry) quantitation with Pearson correlation analysis. Extractive yields ranged from 4.78 ± 0.12% w/w (EAE) to 14.89 ± 0.33% w/w (HAE), with total recovered organic material of 37.45 ± 0.81% w/w and inter batch CVs below 2.6% for all fractions. HPTLC across three matched solvent systems identified and quantified twenty-three bands, including E and Z guggulsterone (combined 63.4 µg/mg) and lupeol in EAE, and quercetin (48.6 µg/mg), myricetin (34.5 µg/mg), ellagic acid (42.8 µg/mg), and gallic acid (52.6 µg/mg) in the polar fractions; all calibrations met ICH Q2(R1) acceptance criteria (R² ≥ 0.998, recovery 95–105%). Antioxidant potency followed the invariant rank order HAE > EE > EAE > HE across all four assays. HAE returned DPPH IC₅₀ = 87.4 ± 3.6 µg/mL, ABTS IC₅₀ = 61.2 ± 2.8 µg/mL, NO IC₅₀ = 108.4 ± 4.6 µg/mL, and a TAC of 198.7 ± 3.6 mg AAE/g, values quantitatively competitive with hydroalcoholic fractions of C. mukul and related Commiphora species. TPC and TFC correlated strongly with antioxidant potency across all assays (r = 0.94–0.99, p ≤ 0.05). These findings establish a polarity resolved chemical blueprint for C. caudata resin, identify validated HPTLC marker profiles for quality standardization, and provide mechanistic rationale for the species' ethnopharmacological use in oxidative stress related conditions, while the guggulsteroid content of EAE foreshadows its antihyperlipidemic potential documented in a companion investigation.