International Journal of Bioassays ISSN: 2278-778X www.ijbio.com Original Research Article OPEN ACCESS

ANTIOXIDANT POTENTIAL OF METHANOLIC EXTRACT OF ADANSONII R Gomathi, Isaivani Indrakumar* and S Karpagam Department of Botany, Queen Mary’s college, Chennai, India

Received for publication: May 17, 2014; Revised: June 21, 2014; Accepted: July 07, 2014

Abstract: Antioxidants prevent oxidative damage caused by free radical and can be used in cardiovascular and anti- inflammatory diseases. The presence of natural antioxidant in is well known. The present study was undertaken to find the antioxidant value of the Monstera adansonii. The amount of total phenols, flavonoids, tannins and radical scavenging activity was studied. The analysis carried out was, DPPH free radical scavenging activity, Ferric reducing antioxidant power assay, Superoxide anion scavenging activity and Nitric oxide scavenging activity. Plant extracts were prepared by maceration method using methanol. Results show that Monstera adansonii had highest yield of methanolic extract (3.84%), total phenolic content (10.34mg/g) and antioxidant activity (89.84%) using DPPH method. Increasing the concentration of the extracts resulted in increased ferric reducing antioxidant power for the methanolic extract tested. The plants, Monstera adansonii, may be potent source of natural antioxidants.

Key Words: Phenol, Monstera adansonii, DPPH, Tannin, Antioxidant

INTRODUCTION Free radicals (superoxide, hydroxyl radicals and activity, Ferric reducing antioxidant power assay, nitric oxide) and other reactive species (hydrogen Superoxide anion scavenging activity and Nitric oxide peroxide, hypochloric acid, and proxynitrite) produced scavenging activity was carried out in the present study. during aerobic metabolism can cause oxidative damage of amino acids, lipids, proteins and DNA. It has been MATERIALS AND METHODS established that oxidative stress is among the major Sample Preparation causative factors in the induction of many chronic and Fresh samples of the Monstera adansonii leaves degenerative diseases including atherosclerosis, ischemic and stem were collected in Tamil Nadu Agriculture heart disease, ageing, diabetes, cancer, Society, Chennai-04, shade dried, powdered and extracted neurodegenerative disease and others. The most effective with 75 ml of the solvent methanol and kept overnight in way to eliminate free radicals which cause the oxidative shaker. The extract was collected after filtration using stress is with the help of antioxidants. In recent years Whatman No.1 filter paper and was stored. Extraction was much attention has been devoted to natural antioxidant repeated three times. The extracts were pooled together and their association with health benefits (Arnous et al., and was concentrated using rotary vacuum evaporator 2001) and probe to be plants are potential sources of (40°) and the residue obtained were designed as crude natural antioxidants. Natural antioxidants especially extracts were labeled and stored at 4°C for further study phenols and flavonoids are safe and also bioactive. Recently focus has been concentrated on identification of DPPH free radical scavenging activity (Harbone et plants with antioxidant ability that may be used for human al., 1995): Different concentrations (50, 100 and 150µl) of consumption (Madhavi and Salunkhe, 1995; Kaur et al., each extracts were added, at an equal volume, to 2006; Pourmorad et al., 2006; Hosseinimehr et al., 2007). methanolic solution of DPPH (0.1%). The reaction mixture is incubated for 30min at room temperature; the Monstera adansonii schott., Adanson’s monster, absorbance was recorded at 517 nm. BHT was used as is an evergreen root climbing hemi-epiphyte. The stem, standard controls. The annihilation activity of free radicals branched, cylindrical, aerial elongated axis with extended was calculated in % inhibition accord