Qualitative, quantitative phytochemical screening and antioxidant study of leaf and stem bark extracts of Lannea microcarpa and Terminalia aviccinniodes

Abstract

Natural products and their derivatives represent more than 50% of all the drugs in clinical use in the world today. They continue to provide natural product chemists and pharmacologists with invaluable compounds as starting points for the development of new drugs. Stem bark and leaves of the two plants were extracted with ethanol, screened qualitatively and quantitatively for the presence of secondary metabolites using standard methods. Quantitative determination of total phenolics, total flavonoids, and in vitro antioxidant activity (DPPH) of the extracts was carried out using colorimetric methods. The Phytochemical screening result showed the distribution of secondary metabolites in the extracts with the leaf extract of L. microcarpa having the highest amount of total phenolics (884.40±1.09 mg/g GAE ) and total flavonoids (60.24±0.34 mg/g QE) respectively. The antioxidant potential of the extracts recorded significant IC50 values in μg/ml ranging from 10.12 to 23.50 when compared to ascorbic acid (0.07) and butylated hydroxytoluene (0.27).