Antioxidant Activity of Muntingia calabura L. Leaves Ethyl Acetate Fraction

Abstract

Muntingia calabura is one of the plant that has potential as a natural antioxidant. The antioxidant effect of ethyl acetate fraction of M. calabura leaves had been done using ABTS (2,2’-azino-bis-(3 ethylbenzothiazoline)-6-sulfonic Acid) method. The dried leaves were extracted by maceration method using ethanol than fractinated using water, n-hexane, and ethyl acetate, respectively. The chemical mayor components of M. calabura leaves were identified: phenolic, flavonoid and steroid. The concentration of the ethyl acetate fraction for the antioxidant testing in this research was 0.8; 1.0; 1.2; 1.4; and 1.6 ppm compared to vitamin C was 0.6; 0.8; 1,0; 1.2; and 1.4 ppm. The result shows that ethyl acetate fraction has very strong activity as an antioxidant with IC50 value 1.20 ppm compared with ascorbic acid IC50 1.18 ppm. Based on the result, it can be concluded that M. calabura leaves had very strong antioxidant activity.