Phytochemical Screening and Antioxidant Activity Evaluation of Papaver Somniferum L Seed Extract from Eastern Sudan

In this study, petroleum ether, methanol and chloroform seeds extract of Papaver somniferum L were examined for yield percentage, phytochemical constitutes and antioxidant activities using DPPH assay. The extraction with methanol resulted in the highest yield percentage followed by chloroform, while lowest yield percentage was represented by petroleum ether. The extraction yields were found to be (39.0, 18.9, and 11.2) for the methanol, chloroform, and petroleum ether extracts, respectively. Phytochemical screening for seeds extracts indicated the presence of various secondary metabolites like alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, phenols, saponins, terpenoids and steroids. The antioxidant activity of methanol extracts of the seeds was found to have strong reducing power as (76.17% and 74.7%) at concentration 1ml, 0.5 ml respectively. These results suggested that the methanolic extracts contain compounds that are capable of donating hydrogen to a free radical and remove odd electron which is responsible for radicals' reactivity, effects may be due to the abundant presence of phenolic compound in methanol extract.