A Botanical Profile and Phytochemical Evaluation of Leaf, Stem and Root of Egyptian Lycopersicon esculentum Miller

Abstract

Background: Tomato plant (Lycopersicon esculentum Miller, Family Solanaceae) is one of the most important vegetables worldwide for its edible fruit. Other plant organs (leaf, stem, and root) are discarded after harvesting. Reports showed that these worthless plant organs are rich untapped sources of biologically active constituents, which encourage us to do further investigation. However, lack of standardization for this plant represented a problem facing their use in medicine. Objective: The objective of the current work is to establish a botanical profile for the leaf, stem, and root, to perform a phytochemical investigation including estimation of the total phenolics and flavonoids content, as well as identification of isolated pure compounds from the highest yield organ. Methods: Samples of each organ have been examined macroscopically and microscopically. A phytochemical investigation including successive extraction, estimation of the total phenolics and flavonoids content were carried out. The different fractions of the leaf, having the highest yield, were subjected to phytochemical investigation using successive columns of silica gel and sephadex. Results: Colorimetric estimation of the total phenolics and flavonoids content showed that the leaf has the highest values (84.29±1.50, 50.49±0.26) followed by the stem (50.94±0.33, 9.10±0.14) then the root (40.71±0.07, 1.32±0.01), respectively. Six known compounds namely: apo- β-carotenol, β-sitosterol from the n-hexane fraction, protocatechuic acid, stigmasterol 3-O-β-D- glucoside from the ethyl acetate fraction, quercetin and rutin from the n-butanol fraction were isolated and their structure elucidation was confirmed by NMR spectroscopy. Conclusion: This study could provide an authenticated data base for this Lycopersicon species. Key words: Pharmacognostical study, Lycopersicon esculentum Miller, Macro- and micromorphology, Total phenolics and flavonoids content