Abstract

J. D. Habila

Traditional medicinal plant, Tridax procumbens was analyzed for reducing power ability as an antioxidant using the 1,1-diphenyl-2- picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay and for total phenolics using the Folin-Ciocalteu method. The results of the analysis show that T. procumbens has a percentage antioxidant activity (AA %) of 96.70 which was observed to be higher than those of gallic (92.92%) and ascorbic acids (94.81%) used as standards. The reductive potential determination shows that T. procumbens has a very significant reductive potential of 0.89 nm at the same concentration with gallic acid whose reductive potential was 0.99 nm. The total phenolic determination shows that T. procumbens has a phenolic content of 12 mg/g GAE. The results of this analysis revealed the fact that plants are rich sources of natural antioxidant.