{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,8]],"date-time":"2026-10-08T20:29:26Z","timestamp":1791491366250,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":66,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,12,24]],"date-time":"2024-12-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1734998400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Life"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Momordica balsamina Linn is a well-known African traditional herb due to its tremendous medicinal and nutritional properties. It is used worldwide for the treatment of different ailments and diseases. In the present study, the phytochemical and antioxidant activity of South African M. balsamina fruit pulp extracts was evaluated. The fruit pulp extracts were obtained by using the serial exhaustive extraction procedure using the solvents hexane, DCM, acetone, and methanol. The resulting extracts were subjected to different standard colorimetric tests for phytochemical analysis. The presence of compounds with antioxidant activity was determined using dot plot and TLC. The DPPH radical scavenging assay, hydrogen peroxide activity, and reducing power assay, coupled with linear regression, were employed to determine the quantity of antioxidants and their IC50. The results for qualitative phytochemical screening have shown that the fruit pulp contains alkaloids, cardiac glycosides, saponins, phenolic compounds, tannins, flavonoids, terpenoids, and steroids. All the extracts revealed the presence of antioxidant activity in both dot plot and TLC. Acetone extracts (0.279 mg\/mL) showed the lowest IC50 compared to the standards gallic acid (0.4 mg\/mL) and diosgenin (0.42 mg\/mL). These findings confirmed that M. balsamina is very rich in phytochemical compounds and has strong antioxidant potential; therefore, it could be a potential source of drugs which in the future may serve the production of synthetically improved therapeutic agents.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/life15010004","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,12,24]],"date-time":"2024-12-24T09:00:57Z","timestamp":1735030857000},"page":"4","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Qualitative Phytochemical Profiling and In Vitro Antioxidant Potential Evaluation of South African Momordica Balsamina Linn Fruit Pulp"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3915-160X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Buang","family":"Matseke","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, P.O. Box 218, Pretoria 0208, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5096-5367","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sipho","family":"Mapfumari","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, P.O. Box 211, Pretoria 0208, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8613-2543","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mmamosheledi","family":"Mothibe","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Rhodes University, P.O. Box 94, Grahamstown 6139, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,12,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"102","article-title":"The Characteristics and Roles of Medicinal Plants: Some Important Medicinal Plants in Nigeria","volume":"12","author":"Oladeji","year":"2016","journal-title":"Nat. Prod. Indian J."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"88","DOI":"10.3923\/rjphyto.2015.88.115","article-title":"Bioactive principles from medicinal plants","volume":"9","author":"Chikezie","year":"2015","journal-title":"Res. J. Phytochem."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"17","DOI":"10.26480\/msp.01.2017.17.26","article-title":"Bioactive Compounds from Medicinal Plants and Their Importance in Drug Discovery in Pakistan","volume":"1","author":"Mustafa","year":"2017","journal-title":"Matrix Sci. 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