Antioxidant and Anti-Melanogenic Activities of Pakoba Leaves (Syzygium sp) from North Celebes

Abstract

In this research the potential of Pakoba leaf extract to be used as antioxidant and skin whitening (anti-melanogenic agent) is investigated. The antioxidant activity of Pakoba leaves were studied using DPPH method and the result showed that the 80 percent methanol crude extract has strong antioxidant activity with an IC50 value of 22.66 ± 1.02 μg/ml. The aqueous fraction of the sample has an IC50 value of 53.30 ± 1.42 μg/ml, followed by n-butanol fraction (53.63 ± 1.45 μg/ml) and chloroform fraction (511.54 ± 1.59 μg/ml). The anti-melanogenic activity of the crude methanol extract showed IC50 value of 316.56 ± 11.04 μg/ml. Thus, it isconcluded that crude extract of Pakoba leaves shows good potential as the antioxidant source although it does not show good anti- melanogenic activity.