A Study on Phytochemical and Antioxidant properties of the Leaves of Ficus hispida Linn.

Abstract

Ficus hispida Linn. is a small but well-distributed species of the tropical fig tree. Although used in traditional medicine to treat many ailments, there is a lack of system reports about the phytochemical and antioxidant properties of the leaves of that plant. This study was conducted to investigate the phytochemical and antioxidant properties of F. hispida leaves using four different solvents (methanol, ethanol, chloroform, and petroleum ether). Qualitative and quantitative analysis are performed to determine the presence and content of phytochemicals. Four in vitro assay models were used to investigate the antioxidant activity. Phytochemical experiments confirmed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, flavonols, resins, saponins, proanthocyanidins, glycosides, steroids, and tannins. Qualitative analysis showed the total content of polyphenols such as phenolic, flavonoids, flavonols, and proanthocyanidin in those extracts. Among all the Extracts, ethanol extracted from the leaves of F. hispida has shown superior activity in the testing of the total antioxidant capacity assay. In DPPH and ABTS scavenging, ethanol extracted from F. hispida leaves shows the highest scavenging activity among all extractions with IC50 values of 50.33±2.59μg/ml and 83.35±1.98μg/ml respectively. Although in Superoxide radical scavenging assay and Nitric Oxide radical scavenging assay, methanol extraction of F. hispida leaves exhibit with an IC50 value of 104.17±3.49μg/ml and 108.98±4.66μg/ml.