In vitro Antioxidant, Total Phenolic Content and Cytotoxicity study of Selected Herbal Medicinal Products in Ilorin Metropolis
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Date
2025-07-25
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Archieve of Basic and Applied Medicine
Abstract
There are no doubts herbal medicines are endowed with bioactive constituents considered to have many therapeutic effects. The usage of herbal medicines increased sporadically as a result of the belief that herbal medicines have a higher safety margin than conventional medicines. In other to improve acceptance of herbal remedies in the treatment of diseases, the study aimed to assess the antioxidant capability, total phenolic content and cytotoxicity of five (5) herbal medicinal products that were sourced from the city of Ilorin. The products were labelled A, B, C, D and E in this study. The Folin-Ciocalteu method was used to determine the total phenolic content, Brine Shrimp Lethality Assay (BSLA) was used to determine the toxicity of the medicinal products, and the 1, 1-diphenyl, 2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging assay was applied to evaluate the antioxidant activity of the selected herbal medicinal products. Products C, D and E had higher DPPH radical scavenging activities (IC50 = 54.51± 0.22, 42.30± 0.11 and 39.17± 0.24 μg/mL respectively), which was lower in products A and B (129.53± 0.21 and 180.06± 0.34 μg/mL) compared with Ascorbic acid (7.32± 0.12 μg/mL). Total phenolic content was high in products D and E (315.86±0.22 and 205.13±0.31 mg GAE/g extract. Brine shrimp lethality assay (BSLA) revealed products A, C, D, E were found to be non-toxic to Artemia salina larvae, with LC50 > 1000 μg/mL, except extract of product B which was perceived to be moderately toxic with LC50 = 418.80 ± 0.24 μg/mL. The selected herbal medicinal products possessed reasonable safety, antioxidant capacity and phenolic content.