Identification and isolation of bioactive compounds from medicinal plants

Plants have been demonstrated to be a valuable source of medication, and most plant parts contain bioactive components used in traditional therapies. Medicinal plants are rich in naturally occurring antioxidants and display potent antioxidant action. Several North Iraqi medicinal plants that have been used to treat different illnesses for a long time were tested for their natural phytochemicals and antioxidants. Four medicinal plants that grow naturally in the northern Iraqi town of Koysinjaq/Erbil, including sumac, purslane, blackberry, and fenugreek, were collected in October 2020, extracted, and investigated. Characteristics such as phenolic, flavonoid, flavonol, anthocyanin, reducing chemicals, metal-chelating, and 𝛼-amylase inhibitory were determined for the methanolic plant extracts. Phytochemical analysis revealed that sumac had the highest amount of phenolics (138.46 mg GAE/g), fenugreek had the highest amount of flavonoids (16.11 mg QE/g) and flavonols (21.81 mg RE/g), and blackberry had the highest amount of anthocyanins (7.73 mg cy-3-glu/kg). Meanwhile, the antioxidant analysis showed that sumac had the highest ferric-reducing antioxidant power (92.31 mg QE/g) and metal-chelating (638.46 mg Fe2+/g), while purslane extract most inhibited 𝛼-amylase (89.09%). Different chromatography techniques started with thin-layer (TLC), column chromatography and high-resolution chromatographic techniques like HPLC were used in the investigation to isolate plants extracts, separate the distinct fractions of it and measure the amount of seven polyphenolic compounds in the medicinal plants. As this study proves, selected medicinal plants can be an excellent source of phytochemicals, and natural antioxidants can be used as a potential source of natural antioxidants in the food or pharmaceutical industries.