COMPARATIVE STUDIES ON THE PHYTOCHEMISTRY AND ANTIOXIDANTACTIVITY OF BIOSOOT AND BİOASH OF RICINUS COMMUNIS

Ricinus communis L. (R. communis), which is commonly known as castor oil plant, is used asa folkloric herb for the control and treatment for many diseases. Studies have showed thepresence of various phytochemicals such as alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenes, saponins,phenolic compounds such as gallic acid, ricin, rutin, lupeol, ricinoleic acid, pinene, gentisicacid etc. These phytochemicals have therapeutic effects like anticancer, antimicrobial,insecticidal, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, bone regenerative and anticonvulsant activity.The smoke of the leaves of the plant is used as medicine in Thailand. It is used as analternative for the poor absorbing synthetic therapeutic drug due to its bioactive compounds.Because of its bioactive compounds it is used in large scale. However, the study pertaining tophytochemistry and antioxidant activity of biosoot of the plant has not been studied so far.Biosoot is defined as soot generated while burning any biological material either plant or ofanimal origin and the remnants as Bioash. The biosoot and bioash collected by burning thedried leaves of the plant, Ricinus communis was studied for the presence of phytocompoundslike Tannins, Phlobatannin, Saponins, Flavonoids, Terpenoids, Cardiac Glycoside, Steroids,Alkaloids, Quinones and Coumarins. The presence of Tannins, Flavonoids, Terpenoids,Cardiac Glycoside and Coumarin were recorded in Biosoot. However, only Tannin wasdetected in the bioash of the plant. The total phenolic content, total flavonoid contentrevealed that Bioash possess more quantity of compounds than biosoot. The total antioxidantestimation revealed that the Biosoot possess more quantity when compared with that ofBioash. The antioxidant activity studied using DPPH also revealed that biosoot is potentantioxidant agent when compared with that of bioash.