Preliminary Phytochemical Screening and Antioxidant Content of Leaves and Berries of Makoi Reeta Solanki 1 , Diksha Gupta 2 and Neelam Chaturvedi 3 * 1 Nutritionist, Rana Hospital, Delhi Road, Bhoor Bulandashahr, Uttar Pradesh, India(203001) 2 Research scholar, 3 *Associate professor, Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Banasthali Vidyapith, Dist-Tonk, Rajasthan, India (304022) *E-mail: neelam295chaturvedi@rediffmail.com Abstract Makoi is well- known medicinal herb found in India that have bioactive components which attribute to a strong free radical scavenging activity and can modulate many diseases. In the view of the above research facts, the present investigation was undertaken to study the phytochemical screening (alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids, saponins, glycosides, phenolic compound, and phytosterols) and antioxidant potential (total phenolic content, total flavonoids content and tannins content) of both leaves and berries of Makoi plant. The study results revealed that Phytochemical screening of both leaves and berries showed the presence of all phytochemicals; alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids, saponins, glycosides, phenolic compound) except phytosterols. Whereas, antioxidant potential showed that leaves of Makoihad significantly higher content of total phenols (12.16±0.05mgGAE/g), total flavonoids (2.82±0.05mgQE/g) and tannins(1.25±0.05mg/g)as compared to berries. Thus, the result of this study concluded that the leaves and berries of Makoi contain appreciable amount of antioxidants, hence can be beneficial to treat the various metabolic and degenerative diseases. Keywords: Antioxdant Potential, Makoi, Phytochemical Screening Paper cited: Solanki, R., Gupta, D. and Chaturvedi. N. (2018). Preliminary Phytochemical Screening and Antioxidant Content of Leaves and Berries of Makoi. South Asian Journal of Food Technology and Environment, 4(1): 622-627. Introduction Free radicals are highly reactive molecules or chemical species capable of independent existence. The cytotoxic effect of free radicals is deleterious to mammalian cells and mediates the pathogenesis of many chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, cancer etc. Therefore, medicinal plants are believed to be an important source of new chemical substances with potential therapeutic effects and more than 80% of population of developing countries is dependent on traditional folk medicine therapies for treating their ailments. Most of the plants have protective biochemical functions of naturally occurring antioxidants in the cells (Patel et al., 2009). Several pharmaceutically active constituents of plants have been assessed to defend against oxidative damage by inhibiting or quenching free radicals and reactive oxygen species. Naturally occurring antioxidants in plant cells include peptide defence mechanisms which are catalases, peroxidases, superoxide dismutase, glutathione, proteins, tocopherols, flavonoids, phenolics, nitrogen compounds, carotenoids and chlorophyll derivatives (Kumar et al., 2008). The plant Makoi (Solanum nigrum Linn) is commonly known as black night shade in English, Kachchipandu in Telugu andMunatakali in Tamil, belongs to the Solanaceae family (Jimoh et al., 2010).It is an annual weed that grow up to 60 cm tall, branched, erect, usually grows in moist habitats in different kinds of soil, including South Asian J. Food Technol. Environ., 4(1):622-627 (2018) ISSN 2394-5168(Print), 2454- 6445(online) www.sweft.in South Asian J. Food Technol. Environ., 4(1): 622-627 (2018) [622]