Comparative analysis of antioxidant and antiproliferative activities of crude and purified flavonoid enriched fractions of pods/seeds of two desert legumes Prosopis cineraria and Cyamopsis tetragonoloba

Cyamopsis tetragonoloba and Prosopis cineraria are two legumes of the semi-arid region of Indian subcontinent which are unexplored with respect to their medicinal potential. Moreover, there is considerable lack in the comparative analysis of the biological properties of crude and enriched fractions obtained from the pods and seeds. Therefore, this study aims in investigating the effect of purification on the antioxidant and anticancerous activities of the extracts from the two legumes. This is the first study to purify an enriched methanolic fraction using Amberlite XAD7HP column chromatography followed by analysis using Thin Layer Chromatography. This matrix provided an economic and time efficient isolation of flavonoids and isoflavonoids from the seeds and pods of the above mentioned legumes. In addition, antioxidant activity carried out using DPPH assay showed that purification process did not contributed to enhanced antioxidant potential. However, inverse results were obtained during anticancerous activity assay on Huh-7 cell lines.