CHEMICAL EVALUATION AND SPECTROSCOPIC IDENTIFICATION OF LEAF EXTRACT OF PEPEROMIA PELLUCIDA (EWE RIRIN)

Peperomia pellucida (Piperaceae), known as Shiny bush is a herbaceous plant with ethno medical uses which include anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. Air dried leaves of the plant was extracted using Soxhlet extractor to give the methanol extract which was then partitioned successively in n-hexane, ethyl acetate, butanol and water. Alkaloids, tannins, resins, steroids, phenols and carbohydrate were found to be the secondary metabolites present in P. pellucida. Brine shrimp lethality tests revealed that the methanol (LC50 260.89 μg/ml), hexane (LC50 333.91 μg/ml) and ethyl acetate (LC50 45.85 μg/ml) fractions were toxic while the most polar fractions - butanol and aqueous fractions were non-toxic. LC50 ≥1000 μg/ml is considered non-toxic. P. pellucida plant was also found to possess broad spectrum antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aereus, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiellae pneumonae, Salmonellae typhi, Candida albicanas, Rhizopus stolon, Aspergillus niger and Penicillum notatum. The antioxidant activity of P. pellucida as determined by three methods namely: scavenging effect on 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryhydrazyl radical (DPPH), hydroxyl radical and ferric thiocyanate method, revealed that the fractions possessed antioxidant activity when compared with antioxidant standards: butylated hydroxyl anisole (BHA), ascorbic acid and αtocopherol used in the assay. The extracts were however more active in the Ferric thiocyanate method giving a % inhibition of over 98% scavenging activity. The high antioxidant activity of the plant at low concentration indicates that it could be very useful for the treatment of ailments resulting from oxidative stress. These results further corroborate the ethno medicinal uses of the plant.