EVALUATION OF ANTIOXIDANT POTENTIALS OF METHANOLIC EXTRACTS OF OCIMUM GRATISSIMUM AND VERNONIA AMYGDALINA
Essien Grace Emmanuel, *Dr. Effiong Grace Sylveter and William Grace Monday
ABSTRACT
Oxidative stress has been identified as the root cause of the development and progression of several diseases. Supplementation of exogenous antioxidants or boosting endogenous antioxidant defenses of the body is a promising way of combating the undesirable effects of reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced oxidative damage. Plants have an innate ability to biosynthesize a wide range of non-enzymatic antioxidants capable of attenuating ROS- induced oxidative damage. The antioxidant properties of methanolic extracts of two commonly consumed plants (Ocimum gratissimum and Vernonia amydalina) in Nigeria were evaluated comparatively by in vitro method. This was to provide more scientific basis for increased domestic harnesses of these plants. The study indicated that the two plants have antioxidant properties and their activities were dose dependent. O. gratissimum had a mean scavenging activity of 75.150±7.080 while V. amygdalina had 72.78±7.654. Ascorbic acid used as reference compound showed the highest antioxidant activity, with the mean free radical scavenging activity of 92.28±0.6897 and 88.333±0.4381 for tablets and injection respectively. As observed, the DPPH radical scavenging activities of the two plants were not significantly different from that of standard ascorbic acid. The result thus confirms that O. gratissimum and V. amydalina extracts possess appreciable natural antioxidant potentials and this provide good scientific justification for their increased domestication. Consumption of these vegetables is thereby encouraged to help militate against deleterious effect of reactive species known as free radicals.
Keywords: Antioxidants, Ocimum gratissimum, Vernonia amydalina, Oxidative stress, Reactive oxygen species, DPPH, Ascorbic acid.
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