Research Journal of Life Science DECEMBER-2018 Volume 5 NO. 3 (163-172) journal homepage: www.rjls.ub.ac.id How to cite this article: Jatayu, D., Nursyam, H., Hertika, A. M. S. (2018). Antioxidant Effect of Centella asiatica Ethanolic Extract to Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) level on Cyprinus carpio Liver. Research Journal of Life Science 5 (3), 163-172. https://doi.org/10.21776/ub.rjls.2018.005.03.4 Antioxidant Effect of Centella asiatica Ethanolic Extract to Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) Level on Cyprinus carpio Liver Diklawati Jatayu 1* , Happy Nursyam 2 , Asus Maizar Suryanto Hertika 3 1 Department of Aquaculture, Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences, University of Brawijaya, Indonesia 2 Department of Fishery Products Technology, Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences, University of Brawijaya, Indonesia 3 Department of Fishery Resources Management, Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences, University of Brawijaya, Indonesia Email address: diklajatayu14@gmail.com Abstract Centella asiatica is a herbal medicine has been used for many studies in some animals as antioxidant properties. This study was aimed to enhance the level of SOD in Cyprinus carpio after oral administration of C. asiatica extract. In the present study, phytochemical screening of bioactive constituents, antioxidant assay, and their effect on SOD in C. carpio liver were investigated. C. asiatica extract was obtained by maseration for 24 h using ethanol as a solvent. C. asiatica extract with 50, 100, 150 and 300 mg kg -1 body weight were administered every 3 days for two weeks. On the last day of experiment, fishes were killed and liver were removed from the body. The results showed that C. asiatica extract had some bioactive compounds such as flavonoid, alkaloid, terpenoid, tanin, saponin and DPPH scavenging activity with an IC50 value of 125 μg mL -1 . C. asiatica extract also enhanced the level of SOD in fish liver. The SOD level was significantly difference compared to the control group with P<005. These results indicate that the ethanolic extract of C. asiatica had a potential antioxidant properties by scavenging free radical and enhancing the SOD level as antioxidant deffense inside the body. Introduction Free radicals can caused damage to cells and tissues organs such as the liver, kidneys, and heart in both humans and animals. This damage can caused cell death and various degenerative diseases (Kregel and Zhang, 2006). Liver is a vital organ and had many important functions, including hepatotoxic metabolism and detoxification. This organ is the target of free radical concentration enhancement (Mohamed, 2009). Several factors including endogenous factors such as by-product of metabolic process or exposure that enters through respiratory can spread throughout the body. Environmental factors also trigerred free radicals such as cigarette smoke, pollutants, UV light, radiation and xenobiotics (Young and Woodside, 2001). Antioxidants can reduce and prevent cell damage by neutralizing free radicals before these radicals attacked cells so can prevent damage to lipid membrane, proteins, enzymes, carbohydrates, and DNA (Fang et al., 2002). Nowadays, antioxidant properties from natural sources are believed to be safer for health than synthetic antioxidants. Some plants has been reported to have potential as a source of natural antioxidants, such as bran extract (Arab et al., 2011), ethanol extract of serai leaves (Hasim et al., 2015) and dragon fruit (Cho and KEYWORDS Centella asiatica Linn; Antioxidant; DPPH; SOD; Cyprinus carpio L.