Asian Journal of Research in Biochemistry

Introduction: Persea americana seeds have been used in ethnomedicine as a potent remedy for putative health conditions such as muscular and menstrual pains, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, anaemia, insomnia, hyperlipidaemia, diarrhoea, dysentery, gastric and peptic ulcers.

Aim: This study investigated the antioxidant scavenging activities of the methanol extract of Persea americana seed.

Methods: The seed samples were collected, dried, ground into powder and extracted in methanol by cold maceration. The antioxidant activity was determined using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryhydrazyl, lipid peroxidation and reducing power assays. Antioxidant vitamins (A, E and C) and enzymes (superoxide dismutase, peroxidase and catalase) were assayed using absorption spectroscopic methods.

Results: There was a significant increase (p≤0.05) in the DPPH scavenging effect and inhibition of lipid peroxidation activity with increasing extract concentration. There is an increase in spectroscopic absorbance value as the concentration of the sample extract, in the reaction mixture, increases indicating its reducing power ability. The EC₅₀ values for DPPH, lipid peroxidation and reducing power assays were 610 µg/ml, 640.51 µg/ml and 580 µg/ml respectively. Vitamin E (267.73 ±             0.07 mg/ 100 g) content was the highest among the antioxidant vitamins investigated (Vitamin A (7.60 ± 0.01 mg/100 g) and C (3.88 ± 0.03 mg/100 g).

Conclusion: The chemical compositions of the investigated samples might be responsible for their medicinal values in phytomedicine. This study shows that Persea americana seeds are adequate in maintaining healthy nutrition for preventing the accumulation of destructive free radicals. The radical scavenging abilities exhibited by the seed extract may be attributed to the high polyphenolic content and antioxidant enzymes present.