Phyto-Electrochemical Mapping of Indian Cappers: Redox Mediator Application on Mesoporous Carbon Based Electrodes

Indian Cappers (IC), often known for its wide range of applications as a medicinal plant, is an essential spice with phenolic phytochemical attributes. These are plausibly electrochemically redox active in nature. The redox moiety of phytochemicals can be exploited as a green route electron-transfer mediator, rather than conventional chemical redox mediators. Herein, mesoporous carbon-assisted electrochemical redox mapping of a phytochemical using IC plant is reported. A well-defined redox peak for IC-redox with E 0 = 0.2 V is observed with a surface excess (Γ) value of 44.8 × 10 –9 mol cm −2 . Physico-chemical characterization is carried out to provide a detailed analysis of IC redox-based constituents. Furthermore, the fabricated IC sensor is used for the electrocatalytic oxidation of Ascorbic acid (AA) as a model system for preparing electrochemical sensors. The prepared sensor gave a notable oxidation peak for AA at E′= 220 mV with a sensitivity value of 0.0385 μA/μM in the range of 0―1000 μM. This work is a preliminary experiment for on-site testing of ascorbic acid in blood serum samples as a point of care testing. Additionally, the Cappers showed appreciable antibacterial activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative strains, producing clear inhibition zones even without the use of antibiotics.