Phytochemical Screening and Antioxidant Activity of “KROATISANE†, a Traditional Recipe Used in the Management of COVID-19 Symptoms

In Côte d'Ivoire, more than 340,000 infected people and more than 15,000 deaths have been recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to make a significant contribution to this problem, practitioners of traditional medicine (PMT) have used in Côte d'Ivoire a medicinal formulation composed of leaves of Alchornea cordifolia (euphorbiaceae), the bark of Alstonia boonei (apocynaceae), leafy stems of Ocimum gratissimum (lamiaceae), and rhizomes of Zingiber officinale (zingiberaceae) named “Kroatisane†used for the management of symptoms of COVID-19. The present study aims to determine the phytochemical composition and evaluate the antioxidant activity of the aqueous extract of “Kroatisane†. To do this, an aqueous extract of the four medicinal plants was prepared. Classes of secondary metabolites were identified according to the methods described by Evans (2009) and several other authors. Antioxidant activity was determined by that of free radical scavenging using DPPH. The aqueous extract of “Kroatisane†(KTI) showed DPPH scavenging activity dependent on its effective concentration (EC50) of 100.3 μg/mL. This antioxidant activity has an inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 100.3μg/mL compared to that of ascorbic acid of 3.025 μg/mL and the IC50 of gallic acid of 0.8968 μg/mL. The activity of the aqueous extract of “Kroatisane†is 33 and 104 times less powerful than those of ascorbic acid and gallic acid respectively. Furthermore, the phytochemical screening of “Kroatisane†revealed the presence of several secondary metabolites in particular, alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids, terpenoids, saponosides and reducing compounds. These results could partly justify the traditional use of this recipe in traditional medicine for the management of symptoms of COVID-19.