TOTAL PHENOLIC CONTENT AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY IN NYPA FRUTICANS EXTRACTS

Abstract

Nypa fruticans is a palm species commonly found inhabiting the brackish area or adjacent to the mangrove forest. The ability of this specie to inhabit in such extreme environment may have been assisted by a type of defence metabolites. In the present study, the content of total phenolic and antioxidant activity in matured leaves, young leaves and the husk of mature fruits were examined. Total phenolic was measured using Folin-Ciocalteu and antioxidant was based on free radical-scavenging activity. The results showed that the matured leaf contains the highest total phenolic (299.06 ± 0.02 mg/g dry wt. sample), followed by the young leaf (205.97 ± 0.02 mg/g dry wt. sample) and fruit-husk (30.77 ± 0.01 mg/g dry wt. sample) extracts. Both mature and young leaf contained high antioxidant activity, the IC50 values were 0.42 and 0.32 mg/ml, respectively. Antioxidant activities have a positive correlation with the total phenolic content (R2 =0.687). Phenolics in N. fruticans leaves might play a role as defensive agent against the free-radical regenerated by stress.