ANTIOXIDANT SCREENING

ABSTRACT

Picralima nitida commonly known as picralima or heap tree is a tree or shrub with very diverse uses in West African folk medicine. This tree is widely distributed in the tropical forest regions of Nigeria and is called Abeere by the Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria. Antioxidants play an essential role in maintaining human health and preventing and treating diseases through their ability to reduce oxidative stress. Therefore, measuring the antioxidant activity/capacity of foods and biological samples is essential not only to ensure the quality of functional foods but especially to study the effectiveness of antioxidants in Diet in the prevention and treatment of diseases related to oxidative stress. This project aims to study the antioxidant capacity of ethanol and aqueous extracts of Picralima nitida stem bark using standard methods. And it was revealed that the ethanolic extract of P. Nitida stem bark exhibited strong antioxidant activity compared to the aqueous extract, using the 1,1- diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging method. These results suggest that the stem bark of P. nitida has significant potential as a source of natural antioxidants and essential minerals, which may be useful in the development of functional foods and nutraceuticals.