Introduction: Mangifera indica is a rampant Nigerian plant with history of application in traditional medicine for the treatment of degenerative diseases by indigenous Nigerians. Methods: The leaf, stem-bark and root-bark of M. indica were screened for phytoconstituents. The dried powdered plant parts were extracted using aqueous and ethanol solvents. The antioxidant activity of the concentrated extracts was determined using the ferric reducing anti-oxidant power (FRAP), 2, 2'-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and thiobarbi-turic acid reactive substance (TBARS) assay methods. Result: The results obtained were analysed statistically by one -way analysis of variance with level of statistical significance taken as p<0.05. In FRAP assay, leaf and stem-bark aqueous extracts showed the highest antioxidant activity with values 92.75 ± 0.48% and 94.49 ± 0.48% respectively while the root-bark ethanol extract (68.67 ± 1.49%) showed the highest activity. In DPPH assay, the leaf, stem-bark and root-bark ethanol extracts showed the best percentage DPPH scavenging activity with values 79.09 ± 0.42%, 59.86 ± 0.32% and 80.70 ± 0.42% respectively. In TBARS assay, the leaf and root-bark aqueous extracts showed the best activities with values 97.75 ± 0.56% and 99.48 ± 0.33% and the stem-bark ethanol extract (99.62 ± 0.26%). Conclusion: The study shows that both the aqueous and ethanol extracts of M. indica could be useful to combat free radical mediated diseases.Key words: Mangifera indica leaf, 2,2'-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), Thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS), Stem-Bark, Root-Bark, Antioxidant activity.
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INTRODUCTIONRecently, antioxidant activity (AOA) has been used as a parameter to characterize various products' health-enhancing properties. This is connected with a common opinion on antioxidants' crucial role in the prevention of oxidative stress 1 related diseases and on the reduction of total mortality, 2-3 associated with diets rich in plant foods, particularly fruits and vegetables. 4 In most areas of food manufacturing, precise knowledge of antioxidant capacity (AOC) is becoming of great importance; thus many analytical methods and measuring systems have been developed. Certain antioxidants or reactions are method-specific, so researchers don't just depend on a particular method only, but employ several others for determining the AOC of fruits and vegetables. 5 Cancer prevention with the aid of bioactive fractions as well as with specific phytochemical obtained from plants with proof of cancer-inhibiting properties pose promising alternatives to the present cancer drugs. [6][7] Antioxidant compounds have been widely used to reduce clinical toxicity 8 induced by cancer drugs in patients; there is yet to be any observed reduction in these drugs' efficacy. From time immemorial, plants have been used as a source for drug compounds, and plant derived medicines have made large contributions to human health and wellbeing. 10 Many plants known to possess antioxidant properties have been pr...