Preliminary Study: Vitamin C in Paederia Foetida Leaves

Paederia foetida is an important perennial climbing medicinal herb native to eastern Asia. It is used as a remedy for diarrhea, dysentery, rheumatism and fever in Asia. Malay called this plant 'akar sekentut' and it is often eaten raw or steamed by local people rather than using it as traditional medicine. This preliminary study aims to determine the amount of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in local Paederia foetida leaves. The dried leaves were soaked in ethanol for one day at room temperature before being evaporated to obtain the extract. Then, high performance liquid chromatography analysis has been used to analyze the samples. Results obtained show amount of vitamin C in mature leaves is higher than young leaves with 66 ppm and 64 ppm respectively. This showed that, paederia foetida leaves consist considerable high amount of vitamin C and more study should be done on this local species to investigate chemical active compounds with biological function potential.