Analysis of Phytochemical Constituents and Antioxidant Potential of Bitter Kola Leaf Extract towards Bioactive Food, Nutrition and Health Resources

Abstract

Plants are important to life, beyond nutritional role there are other functions that plant plays in helping humans and animals survive in their environment. This study focused on identifying the phytochemicals, bioactive compounds present in bitter kola leave, their in-vitro antioxidant activities and compared with n-hexane, ethanol and aqueous solvent to identify effective solvent for extraction of these phytochemicals in relation to food, health and nutritional benefits. The FTIR and GC- MS assessment of the extracts showed the existence of bioactive compounds. The outcome showed the detection of tannin, phenol, alkaloid, flavonoid, protein and carbohydrate in all leaf extracts, with ethanol having the highest concentration of these phytochemicals (p<0.05). The in-vitro free radical scavenging properties of bitter kola leaf extracts against 1, 1-diphenyl- 2-picryl hydrazyl showed that the n-hexane leaf extract recorded the highest inhibitory activities when compared to both n-hexane and ethanol extracts (p<0.05) across all concentrations. However, all extracts showed increase in inhibitory activities with increasing concentrations. When compared to both n-hexane and ethanol leaf extracts, the ferric reducing antioxidant capacity of Garcinia kola leaf extracts rose with concentrations, with the aqueous leaf extract having the strongest reducing characteristics from 5mg/ml to 7mg/ml (p<0.05). The bioactive compounds present in bitter kola leaves makes it consumable and suitable in the treatment of different diseases such as bacterial infection, cancer, diabetics and inflammation because its level of effectiveness is confirmed in traditional medicine