Profiling of antiviral and antioxidant phytochemicals of Pterocephalus frutescens hochist. using high-resolution ultra-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer

Background: Medicinal plant extracts and herbal preparations are complex mixtures of active and ballast substances, which may contain in frequently up to several hundreds of different constituents, with no exactly defined structures at which chromatography undoubtedly is a fundamental tool to overcome the challenges of these phytoanalytics. Aim of the Study: To investigate Pterocephalus frutescens aerial part extracts biologically and chemically and the correlation of biologically active constituents with their corresponding activities. Materials and Methods: Ultra-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer with principal component statistical analysis was used for the identification of phytoconstituents, while spectrophotometer was used for quantitative analysis and both qualitative and quantitative antioxidant effects using stable radical diphenylpicrylhydrazyl, and the cytopathic effect inhibition assay was used for antiviral screening. Results and Conclusion: P. frutescens extracts exhibited antioxidant and antiviral activities along with tentative identifying of 46 compounds from which 38 compounds were correlated with either antiviral and/or antioxidant activities, besides the quantification of phenolic, flavonoid, phenylethanoid, and iridoid contents.