Proximate and Elemental Analyses, Phytochemical Screening and Antioxidant Activities of Aqueous and Ethanol Extracts of Solanum incanum Linn. fruits

Abstract

Solanum incanum Linn. (Solanaceae) is a perennial bushy herb or shrub used to stained teeth among the Kanuri women and in making vegetable soups. The objectives of the present study were to determine proximate and elemental contents, the phytochemical constituents and antioxidant activities of the Solanum incanum Linn. fruit extracts. The proximate and elemental analyses were done using a standard methods. Extraction was done by cold maceration method using distilled water and ethanol. Qualitative and quantitative phytochemical screenings were done on the aqueous and ethanol fruit extracts. Also in vitro antioxidant activity was assessed by determination of free radical scavenging activity, ferric reducing antioxidant power and total antioxidant activity. The proximate analyses of the plant showed the presence of crude fibre, carbonhydrate, and crude protein while the elemental analyses revealed the presence of magnesium, calcium and sodium. The extracts were also found to contain a variety of phytochemicals like saponins, tannins, flavonoids, terpenoids, cardenolite, glycosides, reducing sugars, phenolics content and flavonoids content. The results of antioxidant showed that the DPPH free radicals were scavenged by plant extracts in a concentration dependent manner. Moreover, the EC50 values for DPPH radicals with aqueous and ethanol fruit extracts of the S. incanum Linn. were found to be 0.02488 and 0.1000 mg/ml, respectively. Thus, this indicates that aqueous fruit extract was a more potent scavenger of free radicals than ethanol extracts. In conclusion, this results suggested that aqueous extract of S. incanum Linn might contain more potential antioxidant compounds than ethanol extract.