Latin American Applied Research 47:35-40 (2017) POLYPHENOLIC CONTENT AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF LEAVES OF URTICA SIMENSIS GROWN IN ETHIOPIA T. SEIFU†, B. MEHARIffi, M. ATLABACHEW§ and B. CHANDRAVANSHI* † Department of Chemistry, Arba Minch University, P.O. Box 21, Arba Minch, Ethiopia.
[email protected] ffi Department of Chemistry, University of Gondar, P.O. Box 196, Gondar, Ethiopia.
[email protected] § Department of Chemistry, Bahir Dar University, P.O. Box 79, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.
[email protected] * Department of Chemistry, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
[email protected] Abstract This study aimed to investigate the an- used as popular vegetable in some areas of Ethiopia tioxidant activity and polyphenolic content of a wild (Friis, 1989; Assefa et al., 2013). The plant grows all vegetable, Urtica simensi, grown in Ethiopia. Total around the year and, therefore, can be harvested when- phenolics, tannin and flavonoid content of leaves ex- ever there is a need. Leaves and young shoots are also tract were determined by the Folin Ciocalteu, Folin eaten in times of famine in some areas of Ethiopia. Ciocalteu/protein precipitation and aluminum chlo- Furthermore, U. simensis has been traditionally used ride methods, respectively. The antioxidant activity as a medicinal plant. To mention a few of its medicinal was tested by the DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2- properties, the plant is effective in the treatment of picrylhydrazyl) free radical scavenging method. Re- blood pressure, diabetes, and prostate hyperplasia, sults of the determination revealed that total phenols rheumatoid arthritis, allergic rhinitis, diarrhea, cough ranged from 15.75 to 22.67 mg gallic acid equiva- and other problems (Dar et al., 2012; Lahigi et al., lent/g of dried leaves.