Keywords: Ficus deltoidea (Mas Cotek), antioxidants, methanolic extract, DPPH.

Abstract

Antioxidants compounds that may present in the methanolic extract of the leaves and stems of female and male plants of Ficus deltoidea were isolated and characterised. The methanolic extracts of the plants were first fractionated by column chromatography. The fractions were then tested on their antioxidant activities by using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging assay. The fractions that exhibited highest antioxidant activities were then analysed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), phytochemical screening and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) studies in order to identify their antioxidant compounds. The DPPH results revealed that crude extracts of each leaves and stems of each female and male plants of F. deltoidea exhibited significant antioxidant activities. It was found that fraction-51 of the female leaf extract expressed the highest antioxidant activity, followed by fraction-8 of the female stem extract, fraction-35 of male leaf extract and lastly fraction-10 of the male stem extract. Possible phytoconstituents that might be in these fractions are terpenoids, lipids, carbonyl compounds, unsaturated hydrocarbons, tannins, phenols and alkaloids.