ABSTRACT

Medicinal plants can be defined as the plants that possess therapeutic properties or exert beneficial pharmacological effect on the human or animal. There are a lot of chemical compounds synthesized from plants that can be used for various purpose including defense and protection against diseases, fungi and herbivorous mammals. The DCM/methanolic extract of P. nitida fruit was studied to evaluate its antioxidant activity by six in vitro methods. The extract was found to contain significant amount of phenol and flavonoid in Folin-Ciocalteau and total flavonoid content assay. The qualitative analysis of the fruit extract reveal the presence of Saponins, Flavonoids, Cardiac Glycolysides, Terpenoids, Steroids, Alkaloids, Reducing Sugars and Phenols were present. Proanthocyanidins concentration was at 765.84µg/ml, FRAP was at 347.4 µg/ml, Total tannins were at 46.73 µg/ml, total flavonoids were at 4.53 µg/ml and total phenols were at 29.7 µg/ml. This study showed that P. nitida fruit extracts can play several roles especially in antimalarial and renoprotective activities; confirming its medicinal use for treating diseases and in the chemotherapy.