Acta Scientific Microbiology Determination of the Total Phenolic and Flavonoid in Various Extracts of Adiantum capillus veneris Linn, as well as their Radical Scavenging Activity Naema M El Aali*, Salah N Bugrein, Mohammed F El-Fellah and Yusra F Layas Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Benghazi University, Libya *Corresponding Author: Naema M El Aali, Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Benghazi University, Libya. Research Article Received: November 28, 2017; Published: December 06, 2017 Volume 1 Issue 1 January 2018 Abstract Keywords: Adiantum capillus veneris Linn; Antioxidant; Reducing Power; Flavonoids; Phenolic Adiantum capillus veneris linn is a member of Adiantaceae family which has been used as a folk medicine in management of hyper- glycemia. Although there are some reports showing that the aqueous extract of the plant is effective as hypoglycemic agent but there were no scientific reports for its effectiveness. In a biological system, an antioxidant can be defined as “any substance that when present at low concentrations compared to that of an oxidizable substrate would significantly delay or prevent oxidation of that substrate” [8]. Antioxidants could protect the human body against free radi- cals that may cause pathological conditions, such as anaemia, ar- thritis, inflammation, neurodegeneration, aging process and per- haps dementias [5]. The powdered dried leaves of A. capillus veneris L. was extracted continuously by Soxhelt extractor, five extracts (water, methanol, chloroform, ethyl acetate and acetone) were obtained and evaporated to dryness by rotatory evaporator. The extracts were investi- gated for antioxidant activity, reducing power and the presence of phenolic and flavonoid compounds. The antioxidant activity of A. capillus veneris L. was confirmed for all extracts with the highest activity for the water extract IC 50 = 2.7, this assay was also supported with reducing power assay, in which both methanolic extract and water extract exhibited the highest reducing power assay, while the ethyl acetate extract shows the highest total flavonoids content. The highest total phenolic content value was recorded for methanolic extract. Introduction The knowledge about use of medicinal plants has been accrued through centuries time and such plants are still valued even today, although synthetics, antibiotics etc. have attained greater promi- nence in modern medicine. It is, however, a fact that these synthet- ics and antibiotics although they often show miraculous and often instantaneous results, prove harmful in the long run and this is why many synthetics and antibiotics have now gone out of use or sug- gested to be used under medicinal supervision. In the case of most medicine plants, however, no such cumulative derogatory effect has been recorded and many of medicines obtained from plants are widely used [1]. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines traditional medi- cine as: “the health practices, approaches, knowledge and beliefs incorporating plant, animal and mineral based medicines, spiritual therapies, manual techniques and exercises, applied singularly or in combination to treat, diagnose and prevent illnesses or maintain well-being [2]. A. capillus veneris L. has potential importance in medicinal and nutritive purpose. It is used for chest complaints, cough, expecto- rant and for increasing lactation, colds, kidney function improve- ment, anti-parasitic and dandruff. Also it is used for depurative, emetic, emollient, febrifuge, galactagogue, Alopecia and tonic [3]. Furthermore this plant reported to be useful as de-toxicant in alco- holism and to expel worms from the body [4], and to has positive modulation of oxidation-linked diseases such as diabetes [5]. Free radicals chemical reactions and several redox reactions of various compounds may cause protein oxidation, DNA dam- age and lipid per-oxidation in living cells [6]. Therefore, oxidation have been claimed to play an important role in human health im- plicated in several diseases, including cancer, hypertension, heart attack, aging and diabetes. However, living organisms have devel- oped antioxidant systems to counteract reactive species and to reduce their damage. These complex antioxidant systems include enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD and catalase (CAT). In addition to enzymatic system, an array of small molecules has been discovered in the past few decades such as glutathione (GSH) macromolecules, ascorbic acid, α-tocopherol, carotenoids, poly- phenols, uric acid and bilirubin. Many researches showed that oxi- dative damage occurs when this system is overwhelmed [5,7]. Although the folk medicine has been used from long time by populations in treatment of different disease, there is a lack of data regarding the effectiveness of different plants. Therefore, this study was deemed worthwhile to connect folk medicine with sci- entific prove by antioxidant activity testing to A. capillus veneris L. Exclusion criteria Samples of A. capillus veneris L. were collected from the valleys of Derna – Libya during the winter of 2011 - 2012, the botanical identification of A. capillus veneris L. was determined with the aid of the description given by the Libyan Flora and was eventually confirmed by comparison with authentic samples obtained from Plant Collection and Identification Citation: Naema M El Aali., et al. “Determination of the Total Phenolic and Flavonoid in Various Extracts of Adiantum capillus veneris Linn, as well as their Radical Scavenging Activity”. Acta Scientific Dental Sciences 1.1 (2018): 04-09.