Abutilon indicum (Link) Sweet (AI) belongs to family Malvaceae. Traditionally, the plant was reported as healer for many ailments and other medicinal values such as leaves are effective against ulcer, laxative, expectorant, diuretic, astringent, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anthelmintic, demulcent and aphrodisiac. Though, the plant is distributed in tropical and subtropical area, but is became threatened in Karnataka, India due to its habitat lost and over exploitation. The present experiment

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... as carried out with a comparative study to investigate an effect of aqueous and methanol leaves extracts on presence of phytochemicals, vis-a-vis chromatographic evaluation for detection and quantification of gallic acid and quercetin for effective antioxidant activity. Metal ions such as Fe, Cu, Zn, Co, Ni, Cd, As, Hg were detected form dried leaves, using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer by acid digestion method. Microwave oven extraction was carried out, using both aqueous and methanol as solvents. The percentage yield was calculated and revealed maximum yield with methanol extract (18.62%). Various elements such as Fe, Zn, Cu were present in high amount in methanolic extract whereas Co, Ni, Cd, As, Pb, Hg were not detected in the leaves. Thereafter, phytochemical screening was carried out with various chemical tests and revealed presence of amino acids, carbohydrates, alkaloids, flavonoids, sterols, phenols and saponins with methanolic extract whereas amino acids, carbohydrates and flavonoids are present in aqueous extract. TLC study revealed presence of gallic acid and quercetin in methanol extract but gallic acid was absent in aqueous extract. Further, quantified by HPLC and showed higher amount of both the constituent in methanol extract (gallic acid 0.45 g/100 g and quercetin 0.179 g/100 g) than aqueous one (0.019 g/100 g of quercetin) where absence of gallic acid in aqueous extract. Furthermore, antioxidant study was carried out using DPPH, FRAP assay method and revealed strong free radical scavenging activity with methanol extract which showed positive significa nt correlation with element contents. Finally, results indicated that methanolic AI extract has strong antioxidant activity, may be due to presence of polyphenolic compounds such as gallic acid and quercetin.