Antioxidant potential and phytochemical screening of mature leave of Flemingia macrophylla (willd.) Merrill (leguminosae)

Flemingia macrophylla is herbal plant that usually been used for herbal bath. Normally it is found in tropical country and claims that the plant able to give relaxing effect. However, the plant can be categorized as underutilized herbal plant. Besides, the plant will be extracted by using glycerol and ethanol that act as a control to determine the effectiveness of using glycerol as extraction solvent. Thus, this study is conducted to determine the compound of Flemingia macrophylla by using different extraction solvent in order to popularize the herbal plant among the community. 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) antioxidant radical scavenging was used to determine the antioxidant activity and ethanol extracts show more radical scavenging activity compared to glycerol extracts. Whereas the antioxidant content were determine by total phenolic and flavonoid content and results show ethanol extract more flavonoid compound while glycerol extract more phenolic compound. The presence of phytochemical group were determine by using Ferric chloride, Alkaline reagent, Wagner’s and Salkowski’s test and shown positive results for bothethanol and glycerol extracts. However, the usage of glycerol as an extraction solvent need to be consider since ethanol show better results in comparison.