Phytochemical Composition and Antioxidant Activity Screening of Chloroform Leaves Extract of Man-To-Man (Peperomia pellucida) Harvested from Umunomo Ihitteafoukwu in Imo State, South Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

Peperomia pellucida commonly called man-to-man or pepper elder is a plant of immense medicinal value and used in the treatment of different ailments such as abdominal pain, abscess, acne, boils colic rhematic joint pain and also consumed as vegetable. This study was conducted to investigate the preliminary and quantitative phytochemical properties of Peperomia pellucida. The results obtained revealed the presence of alkaloids (2.49±0.02), phenols (0.05±0.01), flavonoids (0.59±0.01), saponins (0.64 ± 0.02), tannins (0.08± 0.01) with alkaloid registering the highest presence. Peperomia pellucida leaves extract exhibited significant antioxidant activity at minimum and maximum concentrations of 2.0 and 12.0mg/ml respectively (compared to the ascorbic acid used as the free scavenger). The antibacterial result also showed that P. pellucida extract inhibited the growth of the test organisms, with the highest growth inhibition against Escherichia Coli and the lowest growth inhibition against Bacillus Cereus. The antimicrobial properties indicate the potential usefulness of this plant in the treatment of various pathogenic diseases which in future can be developed as a potential antimicrobial agent used in the treatment of infectious diseases.