TITLE:
Analysis of Health-Associated Phytochemical Compounds in Seven Hypoxis Species
AUTHORS:
Busie E. Nsibande, Karl-Eric Gustavsson, Li-Hua Zhu
KEYWORDS:
Hypoxis, Hypoxoside, Medicinal Plants, Total Phenolic Content
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.9 No.4,
March
7,
2018
ABSTRACT: Some species of the genus Hypoxis within the Hypoxidaceae family are known to contain
phenolic glycosides that have different clinical functions. In the African
continent Hypoxis species are
regarded as valuable medicinal plants that have been used for decades by
traditionalists and natives to treat numerous ailments. The corms and rhizomes
of the geophytes contain hypoxoside, a norlignan diglucoside, which is one of
the important phytochemicals with medicinal functions found in Hypoxis. In this study corm extracts of
seven species: H. acuminata, H. argentea, H. filiformis, H. gerrardii, H. hemerocallidea, H. iridifolia and H.
parvifolia were analyzed for the presence of ellagic acid, total phenolic
content (TPC) and hypoxoside. Extracts of H.
iridifolia and H. gerardii had
the highest levels of total phenolic content of 369.6 μg/g and 318.2 μg/g,
respectively, compared to the rest of the species. Hypoxoside was found to be
present in corm extracts of all the species in varying proportions. H. gerrardii, H. argentea and H.
filiformis had the highest relative hypoxoside content of 7.1%, 6.6% and
6.6%, respectively. It is interesting to note that Hypoxis hemerocallidea, the most commonly used species for
medicinal extracts contained a much lower level of hypoxoside than most of the
other species. Our study included species that have not been previously
analyzed for either TPC or hypoxoside presence such as H. filiformis and H.
gerrardii, thus providing novel information regarding the medicinal status
and biochemical compounds of these Hypoxis species.