Identification and determination of flavonoids, carotenoids and chlorophyll concentration in Cynodon dactylon (L.) by HPLC analysis.

Cynodon dactylon (L.) is a potent medicinal plant in the traditional and current Indian medicinal systems. The objective of this research was to find out the levels of flavonoids, carotenoids and chlorophyll b in C. dactylon leaves by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) equipped with a diode array detector. HPLC analysis revealed that total carotenoid and total flavonoid concentration were 62 mg/100 g and 249.1 μg/g, respectively. The mean chlorophyll b was 85.1 mg/100 g in C. dactylon. Among the flavonoids, quercetin (164.7 μg/g) was the major flavonoid followed by kaempferol (48.2 μg/g), rutin (18.4 μg/g), catechin (12.1 μg/g) and myricetin (5.7 μg/g). Of the carotenoids, β-carotene (35.2 mg/100 g) was predominant followed by lutein (17.0 mg/100 g), violaxanthin (5.8 mg/100 g) and zeaxanthin (4.2 mg/100 g). Chlorophyll b concentration was 85.1 mg/100 g in C. dactylon. The results of this investigation should be useful information for further pharmacological studies.