Woodfordia fruticosa Kurz (Lythraceae) is used in the treatment of various ailments in traditional medicines. DPPH activity guided fractionation and purification process was used to identify the free radical-scavenging components from the flowers of t...
Woodfordia fruticosa Kurz (Lythraceae) is used in the treatment of various ailments in traditional medicines. DPPH activity guided fractionation and purification process was used to identify the free radical-scavenging components from the flowers of this plant. The methanolic extract of the plant was first fractionated into four extracts; namely, n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and water fractions. Among them, the ethyl acetate fraction was found to be the most effective and was further subjected to activity guided-fractionation and isolation procedures. After successive column chromatography on silica gel and Sephadex LH-20, gallic acid, which is responsible for the radical scavenging activity, was isolated and its structure was elucidated by spectral methods ($^1H$ NMR, $^{13}C$ NMR) and by comparison with literature.