Qualitative and quantitative phytochemical analysis of forest woody vines

The stems of eight forest vine species, namely: balakbakin (Strychnos minor Dennst.), albotra [Arcangelisia flava (L.) Merr] , bulakan [Merremia peltata (L.) Merr.]. lalapau (Hypserpa nitida Miers ex Benth), mulawing-baging [Symphorema luzonicum (Blanco) F. Vill.], tilob [Dicranopteris linearis (Burm. f.)], kamagsa brown [Agelaea macrophylla (Zoll.) Leenh.], gugo [Entada phaseoloides (L.) Merr] were studied for their phytochemicals and antioxidant activities. Samples were air-dried, ground, and subjected to extraction using ethanol as solvent. The dried crude extracts were screened for their phytochemical components, total phenolic content, total flavonoid content and antioxidant activity. Results showed that among the forest vine species, balakbakin and mulawing-baging had the highest extraction yield of 6.28 not equal to 0.39% and 6.26 + 0.77%, respectively. Phytochemical screening revealed that forest vine crude extracts contain different phytochemicals such as alkaloids, flavonoids, steroids, terpenoids and tannins. FTIR analysis was done to further confirm the presence of alcohols (-OH), alkanes (C-H stretch), alkenes (C=C), carboxylic acids/ketones (C=0 stretch), and nitro compounds (N-O). In terms of total phenolic content, ethanolic extracts of kamagsa brown and mulawingbaging were found to have higher amounts with values of 640.24 not equal to 7.13 and 398.94 not equal to 20.08 mg GAE/g dried extract, respectively. Moreover, tilob, mulawing-baging, gugo, kamagsa brown and bulakan possessed strong antioxidant activities which ranged from 13.26 to 26.17 ug/mL IC50 and is comparable to BHT standard. The results of this screening will be used as baseline in the purification of their bioactive components. Antimicrobial assay was also done in the crude ethanolic forest vine extracts which showed that the growth of Staphylococcus aureus and Candida tropicalis is 'intermediate' to albotra and the growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus subtilis is also 'intermediate' to bulakan and mulawing baging.