Determining the Total Phenolic Content and Antioxidant Activity of Aroid (Alocasia farisii)

Problem statement: The changing environment are giving a rise to free radical causing development of degenerative disease. Significant of study: A search for natural antioxidant is required as the synthetic antioxidant reportedly has carcinogenic effect on living organisms. Objectives: The aim of this study is to determine the total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of Alocasia farisii leaves and petioles using three different solvent polarity which are methanol, ethanol, ethyl acetate. Method: The total phenolic content was evaluated using the Folin-Cioucalteu reagent with some modification and the antioxidant activity by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method. Results: The methanol extract, high polarity solvent attained the highest total phenolic content and antioxidant activity at 48.615 µg GAE/g and 6.43%, respectively. Ethyl acetate, a low polarity solvent recorded the lowest content compared to others at 34.769 µg GAE/g in total phenolic content and 45.272% in antioxidant activity. The IC50 value was obtained by plotting the scavenging activity (%) against concentration of plant extracts. Methanol recorded the lowest at 339.905 µg/mL, which means it has a high radical scavenging activity and ethyl acetate at the highest at 400 µg/mL, a low radical scavenging activity. The correlation of total phenolic content and IC50 showed that total phenolic content was negatively correlated with IC50 of DPPH. Conclusion: These finding provide useful information on the total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of Alocasia farisii that can be a reference for further research on this species of Araceae family. The leaves and petiole extracts of Alocasia farisii may be exploited as sources of natural antioxidant