Antioxidant activity of eight plants consumed by great apes in Côte d’Ivoire.

Abstract

Oxidative stress is an aggravating factor involved in a number of pathologies. The source and mobilization of antioxidant compounds are a challenge for the public health sector and new approaches are needed to assess and identify the main sources of antioxidants. Monkeys and great apes are considered to tolerate the Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection and other diseases. The current study aimed at screening wild chimpanzee's diet to select plants with high antioxidant potential as supplement for improving health status of people under oxidative stress. Bio-cultural approach based on chimpanzee's diet or auto-medication and human traditional medicine was used for selection of eight species, Ficus elasticoides, Ficus lyrata, Ficus umbelleta, Ficus thonningii, Ficus mucuso, Xylopia quintasii, Sherbournia calycina and Myrianthus libericus. Further, antioxidant activity of extracts (methanolic and dichloromethane) from these plants was assessed by 2, 2-diphenyl-1picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) methods. Methanolic extract of leaves from F. elasticoides showed the highest radical scavenging activity with 96.69% of DPPH inhibition, followed by extracts of F. lyrata (94.53%), X. quintasii (94.36%) and F. mucuso (94.33%). The IC 50 values of extracts were respectively 7.8, 9.3, 8.3 and 8.7 µg/ml and close to those of ascorbic acid (8.00 µg/ml) and gallic acid (8.20 µg/ml). The ferric reducing power of F. lyrata (185.01 µM) was the strongest. Active species contain monoterpenoid, secoiridoides and polyphenols. Further investigation on the use of such plants in the traditional medicine will contribute to generate an added value at the interface of human and animal nutrition to provide nutraceuticals for immunocompromised people.

Phytochemical Screening and In Vitro Evaluation of the Antioxidant Potential of Dichloromethane Extracts of Strychnos henningsii Gilg. and Ficus sycomorus L.

“…Tis observation was starkly diferent from the one done by Daniel and Dluya [46] in which they demonstrated that the methanolic stem bark extract of F. sycomorus had a higher ferric reducing power than ascorbic acid (reference drug) which could be the case of diferent solvents used. Nevertheless, the fndings correlate with one done by Ahoua et al [87] on eight diferent Ficus species and it was noted that the majority had signifcantly lower reducing power against the ascorbic acid.…”

“…Te dose-dependent activities of both extracts showed that an increase in the concentration of the extract increased the levels of bioactive antioxidant compounds [86]. Similarly, studies conducted on diferent Ficus species by Ahoua et al reported the species exhibit strong hydrogen peroxide antioxidant activity in a dose-dependent manner [87]. Te strong scavenging potential of the extracts is refected in their low IC 50 value.…”