Antioxidant Potential and Chemical Analysis of Fresh and Dried Young Leaves of Flemingia Macrophylla (Willd.) Merrill (Leguminosae)

Flemingia macrophylla (Willd.) Merrill (Leguminosae) is a medicinal plant that had been used for traditional treatment and sources of remedies. Locally, the F. macrophylla is locally known as ‘pokok seringan jantan’. The decoction F. macrophylla leaves had locally been used as fever and smallpox treatment. However, there are still lack of scientific evidence on phytochemical and functional properties of the leaves part of F. macrophylla. The fresh leaves of F. macrophylla are frequently used in traditional
treatment, however for further utilising this plant in industrial application, dried leaves are more preferable by industry. There is also an urge in searching for agro solvent such as glycerol which is safer to be used in extraction. Glycerol solvent has been used due to its natural and safety properties, however, there are lack of study about the effectiveness of glycerol in extraction. In the present study, antioxidant potential of the ethanol and
glycerol extracts of the young leaves of F. macrophylla were evaluated by using phytochemical screening, 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging assay, total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) in order compare the effectiveness of the solvent. The extract showed significant activities (p ≤ 0.05) in DPPH and TPC, however, no significant different was observed in TFC assay.
Moreover, F. macrophylla extract showed strong reducing power. These results suggest that F. macrophylla may act as a chemo preventative agent, providing antioxidant
properties and offering effective protection from free radicals. Apart from that, glycerol solvent showed better antioxidant activity and it is good enough to substitute ethanol solvent, thus support the usage of safer solvent extract. Dried sample also showed better extraction result against fresh sample in quantification assay. As conclusion, the young leaves of F. macrophylla is worthy to further discover its antioxidant compound and other curative compound by using safer solvent.