Biological Activities of Selected Plants and Detection of Bioactive Compounds from Using UHPLC-Q-Exactive Orbitrap Mass Spectrometry.

Plants and plant-based products have been used for a long time for medicinal purposes. This study aimed to determine the antioxidant and anti-α-glucosidase activities of eight selected underutilized plants in Malaysia: , and This study showed that the 70% ethanolic extract of all plants exhibited total phenolic content (TPC) ranging from 51 to 344 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/g dry weight. showed strong 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and nitric oxide (NO) scavenging activities, with half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC) values of 2.17 and 49.43 μg/mL, respectively. Most of the tested plant extracts showed higher inhibition of α-glucosidase enzyme activity than the standard, quercetin, particularly , and extracts with IC values of 0.29, 0.36, and 0.51 μg/mL, respectively. A total of 62 metabolites including flavonoids, triterpenoids, benzoquinones, and fatty acids were tentatively identified in the most active plant, i.e., leaf extract, by using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC)-electrospray ionization (ESI) Orbitrap MS. This study suggests a potential natural source of antioxidant and α-glucosidase inhibitors from .