World Journal of
Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences

STUDY ON THE PHYTOCHEMICAL AND ANTIOXIDANT PROPERTIES OF THE AERIAL PARTS OF FICUS HISPIDA LINN

Most. Naoshia Tasnin, Ariful Islam, Md. Dobirul Islam, Md. Monirul Islam, Md. Matiar Rahman, MD. Ismail Hossain and Mohammad Amirul Islam*

ABSTRACT

Ficus hispida Linn. (F. hispida) is a small but well distributed species of tropical fig tree. Although it is used in traditional medicine for the treatment of many diseases, there is a lack of systemic reports on the phytochemical and antioxidant properties of the aerial parts of that plant. This study was undertaken to investigate the phytochemical and antioxidant properties of F. hispida fruits, leaves and bark (aerial parts) using four different solvents (methanol, ethanol, chloroform and n-hexane). Qualitative and quantitative analyses were done for the presence and content of phytochemicals. Six different in vitro assay models were used to investigate the antioxidant activity. Phytochemical screening confirmed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, flavonols, resins, saponins, proanthocyanidins, glycosides, steroids and tannins. Quantitative analysis demonstrated the total content of polyphenols such as phenolics, flavonoids, flavonols and proanthocyanidins in those extracts. Among all extracts, ethanol extract of F. hispida bark showed highest activity in total antioxidant capacity assay, whereas the methanol extract of F. hispida bark exhibited maximum activity in ferric reducing antioxidant power assay. In DPPH and Superoxide radical scavenging assays, ethanol extract of F. hispida bark showed highest scavenging activity among all extracts with the IC50 values of 41.56±2.68 ?g/ml and 77.83±4.35 ?g/ml respectively. In ABTS scavenging assay, methanol extract of F. hispida fruits exhibited maximum activity with IC50 value of 50.79±3.67 ?g/ml and in Nitric Oxide radical scavenging assay, ethanol extract of F. hispida leaves exhibited the highest activity with IC50 value of 117.73±2.23 ?g/ml.

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