Antioxidant potency of a medicinal plant - Pongamia pinnata L

Pongamia pinnata Pierre (Fabaceae) is a medicinal plant native to Western Ghats and chiefly found in tidal forests of India. It is commonly known as Karanj and has been recognized in Ayurveda and Siddha systems of Indian traditional medicine system for the treatment of varied diseases of human beings. It is a plant with sound ethnobotanical background. In the present study the total phenol content total flavonoid content and antioxidant potential of P. pinnata leaf and stem extracts by five different methods were studied. Also characterization of the compounds in leaf and stem methanolic extracts were done using spectrophotometric methods like UV absorption and IR spectroscopy.