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Plant Science Today (PST)

Research Articles

Vol. 13 No. sp4 (2026): National Symposium on Recent Advances in Life Sciences

Quantitative estimation of quercetin through HPTLC and GC-MS profiling of selected wild edible plants

DOI
https://doi.org/10.14719/pst.12858
Submitted
22 November 2025
Published
19-06-2026

Abstract

Quercetin is a naturally occurring polyphenol. It is present in many edible plants, including various fruits and leafy vegetables. Quercetin's wide-ranging pharmacological relevance is very significant. It exhibits anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic and anti-asthmatic properties and supports cardiovascular health. The present study was conducted in August to evaluate the quercetin content and overall phytochemical composition of four wild edible species: Amaranthus spinosus L., Thuja occidentalis L., Euphorbia hirta L. and Nyctanthes arbor-tristis L., collected from the district Tonk, Rajasthan, India. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) were used in the experiments. The nitric oxide scavenging assay (NOSA) and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assays were used to assess the antioxidant activity. In comparison to the other plants under study, the methanolic extracts of the leaves of E. hirta and N. arbor-tristis (1809.7, 1065.9 and 982.02 mg QE/g, respectively) showed higher flavonoid contents and improved antioxidant capacity (42.34 and 49.21 μg/mL for DPPH and 60.6 and 44.15 μg/mL for NOSA, respectively) in comparison to other plants. According to the validated HPTLC method, which has been improved for accuracy, linearity and repeatability, E. hirta (98.08 ng/mg) had the highest quercetin concentration, whereas N. arbor-tristis (28.04 ng/mg) had the lowest. The GC-MS analysis showed that carvacrol, thymol, eicosapentaenoic acid, pterin-6-carboxylic acid and panaxydol are the main components in these plant methanolic extracts. The study found that the wild edible plants tested are rich in flavonoids, phenolics and other bioactive compounds, which help explain their strong antioxidant activity. Euphorbia hirta had the highest quercetin content, suggesting it could be a valuable natural source of these compounds. These findings highlight the therapeutic potential of these plants and support further research into their bioactive components for managing oxidative stress-related conditions.

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