Phytochemical screening, total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of Artocarpus heterophyllus and A. altilis / Hasnita Abdul Talib

The purpose of this study were to compare the presence of phytochemical groups, total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of the leaves of Artocarpus heterophyllus and A. altilis. The extracts were obtained using sequel maceration and the phytochemicals were screened using several chemical tests. The total phenolic content was performed using Folin-Ciocalteu method while antioxidant activity applied DPPH radical scavenging activity assay. The ethanol extracts gave the highest extraction efficiency for A. heterophyllus (36.94%) and A. altilis (33.94%). Phytochemical screening on both species revealed the presence of phenols, flavonoids, tannins, reducing sugar, steroids and triterpenoids and the absence of alkaloids and saponins. The ethanol extract of A. heterophyllus showed the highest total phenolic content at 3.498 mg GAE/g followed by the ethanol extract of A. altilis (1.178 mg GAE/g) and ethyl acetate extract of A. heterophyllus (0.3312 mg GAE/g). The A. heterophyllus ethanol extract and A. altilis ethanol extract demonstrated moderate DPPH radical scavenging activity with IC50 value 100.33µg/mL and 168.93µg/mL respectively. The results of this study indicated that the leaves of A. heterophyllus and A. altilis have the potential as source of antioxidant agent due to various phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity.