Pastos y Forrajes, Vol. 42, No. 3, July-September, 227-232, 2019 / Phytochemical characterization and antioxidant activity 227 Scientifc Paper Pytochemical characterization and total antioxidant activity of different extracts from Tithonia diversifolia (Hemsl) A. Gray ▲ Liliet González-Sierra, Maykelis Díaz-Solares, Inelvis Castro-Cabrera, Leydi Fonte-Carballo, Yudit Lugo-Morales and Nancy Altunaga-Pérez Estación Experimental de Pastos y Forrajes Indio Hatuey, Universidad de Matanzas, Ministerio de Educación Superior. Central España Republicana, CP 44280, Matanzas, Cuba E-mail: liliet.gonzalez@ihatuey.cu ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6066-232X Abstract In order to characterize, qualitatively and quantitatively, the main metabolites present in leaf, stem and root extracts from Tithonia diversifolia (Hemsl) A. Gray and determine the total antioxidant capacity of the different plant parts, the plant material was randomly collected in a farm belonging to a farmer of Matanzas province, Cuba. The leaf, stem and root samples were dried, pulverized and extracted with commercial ethanol by maceration. Afterwards, the solvent was removed through a vacuum rotary evaporator. The phytochemical sieving of the different extracts was carried out for the qualitative determination of total phenols, favonoids, saponins, coumarin, tannins, quinones and terpenoids. The concentrations of total phenols, favonoids and saponins of the three extracts were determined using a gallic acid pattern, quercetin and 10 % panax ginseng, respectively. The total antioxidant activity was measured through the phosphomolybdate method. The quantifcation was carried out in triplicate in 96-well microplates. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics with the package SPSS ® , Version 15. The results showed presence of phenols, favonoids, saponins, coumarins, quinones and terpenoids in ethanol extracts of T. diversifolia roots, stems and leaves. The antioxidant activity showed that the root was the organ with higher antioxidant capacity, with 1,10 mg of ascorbic acid/mg of extract. It was followed by the leaves (1,08) and fnally, the stem (0,50). The qualitative and quantitative determination of secondary metabolites showed the presence of phenols, favonoids, coumarins, quinones and terpenoids in ethanol extracts of T. diversifolia roots, stems and leaves. Keywords: leaves, metabolites, roots, stem. ▲ Paper presented in the 5th International Convention Agrodesarrollo 2019 celebrated on October 22-26, 2019. Plaza America Convention Center. Varadero, Cuba Introduction Tithonia diversifolia (Hemsl) A. Gray is a non-leguminous, protein, forage plant, belonging to the family Asteraceae. With its utilization in animal feeding, many benefts are obtained due to its nutritional value and diversity in its chemical composition (Mabou-Tagne et al. , 2018). According to reports by Galindo et al. (2017), its use in the animal diet allows the reduction of methanogens and has benefcial effects on the rumen microbial ecology. Lezcano-Más et al. (2016) stated that it contributes to the decrease of the parasite rate in young cattle. This plant which originated in Central America has been the object of study in natural and traditional medicine for its multiple properties, derived from its secondary metabolism. Its applicability as antimicrobial and anti-infammatory (Sousa et al. , 2019) to fght malaria (Afolayan et al. , 2016), diabetes (Sari et al. , 2018) and cancer (Di Giacomo et al. , 2015) has been recently described. In addition, it has been used as green manure due to its fast growth, high nitrogen-fxing and phosphorus accumulation capacity, with positive effect on poor soils (Scrase et al. , 2019). It also constitutes an alternative for insect control, because it has shown insecticidal activity against leaf-cutter ants (Pantoja-Pulido et al. , 2017). The objective of this research was to characterize, qualitatively and quantitatively, the main metabolites present in the leaf, stem and root extracts of T. diversifolia, as well as to determine the total antioxidant capacity of the different plant parts. Materials and Methods Obtainment of the plant material. The T. diversifolia leaves, fresh stems and roots were