LEAVES OF PICRALIMA NITIDA (PILE PLANT) COULD HAVE FREE RADICAL SCAVENGING ACTIVITY

Earlier investigations have shown that there are a number of plants which shows antioxidant activity. This study evaluated the free radical scavenging activities of the crude methanol extract of Picralima nitida leaves. Picralima nitida commonly called Pile plant is a shrub with wide applications in West African folk medicine. The methanol extract of P. nitida was subjected to in-vitro antioxidant evaluation using DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) and BHA (butylated hydroxyl anisole) as standards. Results indicated that BHA exhibited higher level of scavenging activity (IC50350.28µg/ml) as compared to the methanolic extracts of the sample (IC50402.50µg/ml). This is indicative that P. nitida leaves extract have free radical scavenging activity. Keywords: Free radicals, Picralima nitida, Pile plant, Scavengers, Antioxidants, extract