A comparative study of phytochemical content in air dried and lyophilized Carica papaya leaves

Abstract

Background: Recently, large numbers of Carica papaya leaves supplementary products are hitting the market for increasing the platelet counts among the dengue patients. The thermoliable active compounds of C. papaya leaves present in these products can be degraded during the manufacturing process. Objective: In this study, air drying and lyophilization techniques were used to prepare the dry C. papaya leaves powder to improve the stability of thermoliable compounds. Materials and Methods: Thermoliable compounds like flavonoids and saponin were estimated using ultraviolet spectrophotometer. Furthermore, high performance liquid chromatography method was developed for estimating the phenols and vitamin C content and validated using system precision, linearity, inter- and intra-day precision. A comparative analysis was performed among the air dried and lyophilized C. papaya leaves samples. Results: The amount of phenols, vitamin C, saponin, flavonoids in the air dried C. papaya leaves present at the concentration of 45.47 ± 0.05, 3.14 ± 0.03, 22.63 ± 0.04, and 13.47 ± 0.12 mg/g. Similarly, 58.5 ± 0.16, 8.02 ± 0.04, 32 ± 0.5 and 20 ± 0.30 mg/g of phenols, vitamin C, saponin and flavonoids were identified in lyophilized C. papaya leaves. Conclusion: The presence of high amount of ascorbic acid, phenols, saponins, and flavonoids in lyophilized C. papaya leaves indicates that the thermoliable compounds are degrading in air-dried samples. Therefore, lyophilized C. papaya leaves can be used to prepare better supplementary products for dengue treatment.