PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND EVALUATION OF ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITIES OF THE STEM AND LEAVES EXTRACT OF Phyllanthus niruri OBTAINED FROM ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA.

Abstract

Phyllanthus are genus of a flowering plants used in herbal medicine. Commonly used in Ayurvedic healing, Phyllanthus niruri (P. niruri) known as “STONE BREAKER” are one of the herbal medicinal plants that has a broad range of properties, which are antiviral activities against hepatitis B, antimicrobial, hepatoprotective, anticancer, and hypocalcemic agent. This research were conducted to screen the phytochemical composition, evaluate the antioxidant assay using trolox and gallic acid is control and to determine the antioxidant content of P. niruri extract using rutin and quercetin as standard, which are flavonoids possessing medicinal properties. The qualitative phytochemical screening assay on P. niruri extract showed that the extract had a high content of saponins (+++), a moderate content of phenols, flavonoids, and tannins (++). It also had a low content of steroids, but triterpenoids, terpenoids, and alkaloids were not detected in the screening (-). Rutin and quercetin contents of the crude extracts were determined using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and the antioxidant activity assay were measured using UV-Spectroscopy by 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydroxyl (DPPH) method. The result show that the concentrations of quercetin and rutin in the sample analyzed were 185.96±0.5 and 91.68±0.21 µg/g respectively while the DPPH IC50 values of the crude extract were 62.05 µg/ML. The significant amounts of these antioxidants confirm the nutritional and medicinal value of the plants sample.