IN VITRO EVALUATION OF THE ANTIOXIDANT AND THROMBOLYTIC CAPACITY OF NIGERIAN SPICES: PIPER GUINEENSE SCHUM. AND THONN. (UZIZA), GONGRONEMA LATIFOLIUM BENTH. (UTAZI), AFRAMOMUM MELEGUETA ROSC. (ALLIGATOR PEPPER), MONODORA MYRISTICA GAERTN. (EHURU)

ABSTRACT .Piper guineense seeds, Gongronema latifolium leaves, Aframomum melegueta seeds and Monodora myristica seeds are used in Nigeria as spices, they are also employed in traditional medicine for the treatment and management of diverse disease conditions. The study aim to investigate the in vitro antioxidant assay using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and thrombolytic capacity of these spices. Fresh samples were procured from a food market in Elele, Rivers state. Cold maceration with Methanol was performed for 72 hours, filtered and concentrated using a water bath to obtain the crude extract. The phytochemical screening and the antioxidant assay were determined accordingly using established procedures. The phytochemicals present in the methanol extracts were Alkaloids, steroids, saponins, glycosides, carbohydrates, tannins, protein and flavonoids. The DPPH assay were determined in accordance with standard procedures. The half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) using DPPH was (30, 25, 22, 27 μg/Ml) for P .guineense, G. latifolium, A. melegueta and M. myristica respectively for methanol. Therefore the methanol extract of A. melegueta has the lowest IC50 and therefore has the highest antioxidant activity, when compared to ascorbic acid which is the standard because the lower the IC50, the higher the antioxidant activity. For the thrombolytic assay it can be seen that at increased concentration and increased incubation time, the clot lysis for each of the samples increases. A. melegueta showed maximum clot lysis activity (47.41±0.142) as compared to the others. The present results show that plant materials used in the study have considerable thrombolytic and fibrinolytic effect as they reduce clot weight.