Preliminary phytochemical screening, in-vitro antioxidant and cytotoxic activity of five different extracts of moringa oleifera leaf.

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to judge the antioxidant activity and brine shrimp lethality bioassay followed by phytochemical screening of five different extracts of Moringa oleifera leaves. Preliminary Phytochemical screening of the crude extracts of Moringa oleifera leaf revealed the presence of different kind of chemical groups such as Flavonoids, tannin, Saponin, alkaloids, glycosides, carbohydrate and Triterpenoids. The leaf exhibited significant DPPH free radical scavenging activity with highest IC50 value showed by chloroform extract with a value of 47.481 μg/ml followed by ethanol and methanol having value of 62.09 and 68.321 respectively as opposed to that of the scavenging effects of ascorbic acid and BHT of 5.698 and 8.816 respectively. Dried leaf of Moringa oleifera were subjected to brine shrimp lethality bioassay and the LC50 values of methanol, ethanol, petroleum ether, n-hexane and chloroform were found to be 0.747μg/ml, 0.712 μg/ml, 1.632 μg/ml, 2.163 μg/ml and 0.633 μg/ml respectively. The data obtained in the present study suggests that the extracts of Moringa oleifera leaves have potent antioxidant activity against free radicals and significant cytotoxic activity that can be used in disease prevention.