Zeitschrift für Bioverarbeitung und Biotechnik

Capparis tomentosa is one the varieties of Capparis species commonly used traditional medicinal plants for various ailments like headache, pneumonia and malaria. The study was conducted to determine TPC, TFC and anti-oxidant activities of different solvent extracts of Capparis tomentosa. The results indicated that all extracts have reducing power of DPPH radical. Methanol and ethyl acetate leaf extracts of Capparis tomentosa have the highest total reducing power (90.38% and 82.193% respectively at concentration of 125 ppm for DPPH assay) and petroleum ether showed the lowest reducing power (0.392% at the lowest concentration 25 ppm) and for FRAP assay the same is true as DPPH assay; methanol extract has the highest reducing power (85.574%) next to the standard ascorbic acid (89.866%) at a concentration of 200 ppm and the lowest was petroleum ether extract (76.533%) at the same concentration. When the concentration of the standard and the extract decrease its anti-oxidant activities also decrease. Qualitative phytochemical screening proves the existence of alkaloids, flavonoids, steroids, terpenoids, saponins and tannins. Quantitative analysis of the extract for total phenolic and total flavonoid content revealed that the total phenolic content ranged from 53.93 to 195.97 mg/g of dry weight of extracts which expressed as gallic acid equivalents. The total TFC ranged from 58.4 mg/g (petroleum ether extract) to 175.104 mg/g (methanol extract) of dry weight of which was expressed as catechin equivalents.