Antioxidant and Total Phenolic Content of Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) Leaves

Abstract

This work aims to determine antioxidant, total phenolic content and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis of breadfruit leaves which are essential in management of diabetes. The methanolic extracts of breadfruit leaves was used to analyze for total phenolic content and antioxidant. Total phenolic content of the extracts was measured using the Folin–Ciocalteu assay while the antioxidant activity of plant extracts was measured by the 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picryhyradrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging assay. FTIR analysis was used to determine the chemical components in the leaves. Total phenolic content in fresh breadfruit leaves (144.16 mg/g ± 17.98) was comparable to those of green tea. The results showed the breadfruit leaves extracts exhibited potent antioxidant activity. The presence of OH group also suggests antioxidant capacity of breadfruit leaves to deactivate free radicals as glucose itself could react with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of iron and copper ions to form hydroxyl radical.