Evaluation of Phytochemical, Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Properties of Glycyrrhizin Extracted from Roots of Glycyrrhiza Glabra

Many novel techniques of extraction such as solvent extraction by soxhlet, ultrasonication and extraction by boiling of licorice have been well developed. But ultrasonication has been proved as the best and relevant method for extraction of the glycyrrhizin. To optimize the process conditions for the maximum yield of the glycyrrhizin and easier purification, three types of solvents were employed such as water; methanol and ethanol coded as G-1, G-2 and G-3 and extraction was carried out at different time (45, 60 and 120 min). Maximum amount of glycyrrhizin was recovered from licorice roots at 45 degrees C for 45 min of extraction time, yielded good amount of glycyrrhizin 36.46 +/- 1.29 % using water as solvent. In the present work TLC method assessed the purity of the extracted dried sample compared to the licorice standard. The FTIR spectra of the present study indicated that the control/standard of glycyrrhizin was exactly in resemblance with G-1 spectra. The phytochemical screening of extracted glycyrrhizin was conducted which indicated the presence of saponins, flavonoids, steroids and absence of carbohydrate sugars, alkaloids, tannins and proteins in G-1. The glycyrrhizin extracted using different solvents has shown effective antibacterial action on all six microorganism. The antioxidant activity of each sample was determined using DPPH and ABTS scavenging assay. The presence of flavonoids in the plants is likely to be responsible for the free radical scavenging effects observed. Although, it was found that G-1 attained maximum free radical scavenging ability against reactive oxygen species (ROS).