Natural products play a crucial role as sources of medicinal compounds, and many modern pharmaceuticals have been developed from traditional herbal medicines. Plants in the Piperaceae family are well known for their ethnomedicinal uses. One member of this family, Piper crocatum Ruiz & Pav, was traditionally utilized for its diverse biological properties. However, despite its traditional uses, there is currently limited scientific literature reporting its bioactive compounds and antioxidant properties. Therefore, this study aimed to elucidate the phytochemical composition and antioxidant properties of red betel ethanol extract (RBE). RBE were processed for LC-MS analysis for compound identification. The antioxidant activity was determined using a DPPH assay. Total flavonoids and phenolics of RBE were assessed using the Aluminum Chloride and Folin-Ciocalteu techniques, respectively. The study successfully identified eighteen compounds contained in RBE, with kaempferitrin being the most abundant compound. The higher concentration of RBE exhibited high levels of antioxidant activity, with the percentage of DPPH inhibition of 52.55 ± 0.51%. The flavonoids and phenolics content of RBE was 644.44 ± 48.11 μg QE/g and 496.10 ± 1.08 μg GAE/g, respectively. These findings suggest promising bioactive potential and support further investigation into the antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties of RBE.
Maslikah et al. (Thu,) studied this question.