Annam Chacko

Peperomia Pellucida Linn (Piperaceae) has been traditionally used for the treatment of various ailments such as abdominal pain, acne, boils, colic, fatigue, gout, headache, renal disorders, and rheumatic joint pain. Preliminary phytochemical screening showed the presence of phenols and flavonoids in P.Pellucida. Thus the present study, aims to determine the in vitro antioxidant activity and to estimate the phenolic and flavonoid content in the methanolic extract of the whole plant of  Peperomia Pellucida Linn .Total phenolic content (TPC) was estimated using Folin-Ciocalteau’s reagent and total flavonoid (TF) content by Aluminium chloride colorimetric method. DPPH (2, 2-diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazyl), ABTS (2, 2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid )and nitric oxide scavenging method were carried out to evaluate  the in vitro antioxidant activity.  Total phenolic and flavonoid contents were found to be 3.91g gallic acid equivalent per 100 g and 5.80g quercetin equivalent per 100 g of methanolic extract respectively by spectrophotometric method.IC50 value of methanolic extract of Peperomia Pellucida Linn were found to be  351.56±0.21μg/ml ,76.51±0.19μg/ml and 282.30±0.42μg/ml respectively in DPPH, ABTS and nitric oxide scavenging assays . These primary findings suggest that the methanol extract of  P.Pellucida Linn possess phenolic and flavonoid constituents that are responsible for antioxidant activity.