DOI: 10.36347/sajp.2023.v12i05.001

Pages: 96-103

Trichosanthes cucumerina, a well-known plant, commonly called snake gourd, viper gourd, snake tomato, or long tomato in many countries belongs to the family Cucurbitaceae, is commonly grown in Asian countries including Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia, Peninsula, and the Philippines, and is consumed as a vegetable. The present study screened for phytochemicals present in the plant, and evaluated the in vitro antioxidant activity of the plant using the FRAP and DPPH assay. The phytochemical result for the phenol contents revealed a statistical (p < 0.05) difference in the various extracts (10 and 80 mg/ml) when compared to the reference gallic acid. However, the concentration of phenol at 20 and 40 mg/ml chloroform extract was non-statistically (p>0.05) different when compared to the reference gallic acid. The result from the flavonoid content showed a statistical (p < 0.05) difference across all concentrations of the extracts when compared to the reference gallic acid. The phytochemical results showed that methanol extracts had better yields of 6.149 and 9.286 mg/ml for TPC and TFC respectively when compared to other extracts. The FRAP and PPH results showed a statistical (p < 0.05) difference across all extracts when compared to the reference gallic acid. However, for the various tests, methanol extract proved to be more potent, as it had the highest inhibitions of 80.790 % at 40 mg/ml for FRAP and 98.473% for DPPH scavenging activity. The presence of these flavonoid and phenol compounds, as well as antioxidative parameters in the plant, depicts the ability of the plant to prevent free radicals which can cause damage or death of cells. The results support the utilization of the plant for pharmacologic and therapeutic purposes and encourage further characterization study.