Effects of Solvents on the In-vitro Antioxidant Activity of Dennettia tripetala G. Baker and Milicia excelsa (Welw.) C. Berg Root Extracts

Background and Purpose: The root extracts of Dennettia tripetala G. Baker and Milicia excelsa (Welw.) C. Berg was investigated for their in-vitro antioxidant activities. Materials and Methods:  The pulverized roots of Dennettia tripetala and Milicia excelsa were extracted separately by cold maceration using ethyl acetate, methanol, n-butanol and water respectively as the extracting solvents. In-vitro antioxidant, the activity of root extracts was then investigated using DPPH model. The results obtained was analyzed using One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) involving GraphPad Prism ۵ Software. Results: The antioxidant assay of various extracts, using ۲, ۲-diphenyl-۱-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging model, revealed that the ethanol and n-butanol extracts of D. tripetala had better radical scavenging activity with IC۵۰ values of ۲.۰۲ and ۰.۶۳۱ µg/mL for ethanol and n-butanol extracts, respectively.  The methanol and ethanol extracts of M. excelsa showed higher radical scavenging capacity with IC۵۰ of ۰.۱۹۴ and ۸.۸۴ µg/mL compared to that of the ascorbic acid which had IC۵۰ value of ۴.۶۰ µg/mL. Conclusion: The radical scavenging ability of the extracts could be attributed to the presence of flavonoids and phenolics.

Keywords:

Phytochemicals , antioxidant , Dennettia tripetala , Milicia excelsa , DPPH