The organic extracts from the leaves of Ficus thonningii Blume, Jatropha tanjorensis J.L Ellis and Saroja and Justicia carnea Lindley as potential nutraceutical antioxidants and functional foods

Abstract

The search for naturally occurring plant-based nutraceutical antioxidants is imperative in the management of arrays of diseases. Herein, the methods involved profiling antioxidant activities and nutritional composition of the methanolic extracts from the leaves of Ficus thonningii Blume (FTH), Jatropha tanjorensis J.L Ellis and Saroja (JTR) and Justicia carnea Lindley (JCN) using spectrophotometric techniques. In this sense, J. tanjorensis J.L Ellis and Saroja extract showed the highest total antioxidant capacity and strong DPPH radical scavenging activity with an IC50 of 10.490 ± 0.0320 μg.mL-1 when compared to ascorbic acid (IC50 of 114.140 ± 5.135 μg.mL-1), while for the hydroxyl radical scavenging activity, F. thonningii Blume and J. carnea Lindl. extracts resembled IC50 values of 523.095 ± 13.629 and 503.733 ± 7.562 μg.mL-1, respectively. A positive correlation was observed between the extracts and ascorbic acid (p < 0.001), as well. In addition, nutrients and minerals were present in appreciable quantities. The obtained results validate the assayed plants extracts as potential radical scavengers and promising nutraceutical antioxidants in ethnomedicine.