QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND IN VIVO ANTIPYRETIC ACTIVITY OF THE SEED EXTRACTS OF MORINDA CITRIFOLIA

ABSTRACT

Many important drugs used in medicine today are directly or indirectly obtained from plants and plant products. The aim of this study is to investigate the in vivo antipyretic activity of extracts of the seed of Morinda citrifolia L in albino rats. In this study, dried and ground seed of Morinda citrifolia (Noni) was successfully extracted with different organic solvents in order of increasing polarity (n-hexane, dichloromethane, dichloromethane plus methanol, and pure methanol. Phytochemical screening of the extracts was carried out using standard methods. The total phenolic and flavonoids content was determined using established methods. Similarly, the in vivo antipyretic activity of extracts was determined by Baker’s yeast animal model. The phytochemical screening of M. citrifolia showed that the extract contains steroids, phenolics, tannins, terpenoids, alkaloids, carbohydrates, flavonoids, reducing sugars, saponins and proteins. The dichloromethane plus methanol extract exhibited the highest total phenolic content (70.997 mg GAE/g), followed by methanol (69.793 mg GAE/g), and n-hexane (6.966 mg GAE/g). Also, in the total flavonoids content determination, the dichloromethane and methanol extract exhibited the highest total flavonoids content (38.166 mg GE/g), followed by methanol extract (2.867 mg GE/g). The results obtained from the antipyretic study demonstrate that dichloromethane and methanol extracts of M. citrifolia (Noni) seeds showed significant antipyretic activities compared to the negative control. The study reveals that the seed extracts of M. citrifolia possess antipyretic activity which may be due to the presence of different secondary plant metabolites.