Extraction of Phenolic Contents from Cucurbita Pepo (Published)
Cucurbita p. is a commonly grown vegetable plant which is widely available in Southern African and other African states inculding Nigeria. However, Cucurbita belong to cucurbitaceae family generally known as pumpkin consumed as leafy, vegetable, fruits, flowers and seeds, which can then be simply boiled and eaten. Cucurbita p. contains as many important substances as possible such include calcium, iron, vitamins, oil, and protein etc and similarly provides natural antioxidants such as vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, beta carotene which slow the process of aging by preventing free radicals from oxidizing sensitive biological molecules. Folin ciocalteu reagent was used to determine the total phenolic content present in the Cucurbita p. samples. The result indicated that, the total phenolic content in Cucurbita pepo fraction with petroleum ether is 17.1mg/g of garlic acid and methanol extract with 12.6mg/g showed high phenols while ethanol fraction was the lowest phenolic content with 8.0mg/g. The analysis using HPLC chromatogram shows presence of compounds at 254nm and at different retention times. Therefore, Cucurbita p. is a source of natural antioxidant due to the antioxidant activity determined.
Keywords: Antioxidant, Cucurbita plant sample, Gallic acid solution., Lowry solutions, Phenolic contents