Abstract

ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF ETHANOLIC AND AQUEOUS EXTRACT OF PHYLLANTHUS NIRURI –INVITRO

Rajesh Pratap Singh*, Anju Pal and Krishan Pal

ABSTRACT

Medicinal plants are solving the health problems of world since decades and currently attracting the phenomenal interest at both the national and international level. Recently use of naturally occurring antioxidant for medicine or as a food material has been increased to avoid the side effects of synthetic antioxidants. Phyllanthus niruri (Linn) member of family Euphorbiaceae is one of the important medicinal plant, however less researched for its antioxidant activity and active ingredients. In this study antioxidant activity of ethanolic and aqueous extract of Phyllanthus niruri was analyzed with DPPH (2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) radical and Hydrogen peroxide scavenging methods. Ascorbic acid, a standard antioxidant was used as control during the entire study period. The results indicate that ethanolic and aqueous extracts of Phyllanthus niruri are showing antioxidant activity with both the methods, however ethanolic extract showed high scavenging activity in comparison to aqueous extract with both the methods.

Keywords: Antioxidant activity, DPPH, Hydrogen peroxide, Phyllanthus niruri.