CHEMICAL CONTENT ANALYSIS AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF TRADITIONAL PHILIPPINE HERBAL FORMULA (PITO-PITO)

Pito-pito is a multi-component medicinal plant preparation containing seven plant materials from the leaves of Premna odorata Blanco., Lagerstroemia speciosa Pers., Psidium guajava Linn., Mangifera indica Linn. and Pandanus amaryllifolius Roxb., and seeds of Pimpinella anisum Linn. and Coriandrum sativum Linn. The objective of the study is to determine the antioxidant activity of Pito-pito. The total phenolic, flavonoid, condensed tannin and polysaccharide, and the antixodant activity of Pito-pito extracted in seven solvents and water extract of plant material ingredients were determined. This study revealed that the water extract has the highest amount of total phenolic and polysachharide, and the acetone extract has the highest amount of total flavonoid and condensed tannin. The extract of methanol has the highest activities in DPPH free radical scavenging (IC50 = 97.78 ± 2.87 µg/mL) and FRAP assay (278.89 ± 0.70 mg Trolox / g Extract) by a relatively small margin with the water extract (IC50 = 107.02 ± 4.66 µg/mL and 264.28 ± 2.60 mg Trolox / g Extract, respectively). It was found that L. speciosa, P. guajava, and M. indica contained the highest amount phenolics and possessed the greatest antioxidant activity. Correspondingly, the activity was associated to the amount of the total phenolic. A high linear correlation between FRAP assay and the content of total phenolic was determined, with an R2 value of 0.9541 in the Pito-pito medicinal plant extract and 0.9296 in individual plant materials water extract. The extracts of Pito-pito showed antioxidant activity and exhibited correlation to the content of phenolic compounds.