Neha Kumari, Suman Khanduri, Megha Sharma, Sweta Mathur, Neha Gosai and Maneesha Singh
Abstract
Ocimum basilicum L. (Lamiaceae), popularly known as basil, is an aromatic plant that extensively used for medicinal uses and to add a distinctive flavor and aroma to food. The present study aims to evaluate the phytochemical and antioxidant activity of this commercially important herb, which have antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. The current investigation has been carried out to induce variations in Ocimum basilicum L. using Ethyl Methane Sulphonate (EMS), a chemical mutagen with different doses to determine the various parameters. The yield of various crude extract of screened mutant ranged from 1.12-3.22%. Phytochemical studies showed that protein, alkaloids, amino acid, carbohydrates, flavonoids, tannins, phenolics and saponin were present in all mutants. The total phenolic content of screened mutants of Ocimum basilicum L. showed large variation ranges in aqueous extract from 3.18 to 27.63 mg GAE/g and in ethanol extract 19.59 to 46.55mg GAE/g. The content of flavonoid varied in aqueous extract from 0.92 to 6.68 mg QE/g and in ethanol extract 9.12 to 34.9 mg QE/g. The study revealed that, in comparison to the standard ascorbic acid with an IC50 value of 229 μg/ml, all mutants exhibited IC50 values ranging from 84.66 to 496.7 μg/ml. These findings suggest that inducing mutagen causes variations, improves crops, evaluation of antioxidant potential and creates new genetic resources with desirable traits under diverse climatic conditions.