A Preliminary Study on the Nutraceutical Potentials of Aqueous Fruit Pulp Extracts of Zizipus spina christii, Zizipus mauritiana and Chrysophyllum albidum

their nutritional and medicinal benefits often because of their relative safety.This study was designed to investigate the aqueous fruit pulp extracts of Zizipus spina christii, Zizipus mauritiana and Chrysophyllum albidum for their phytochemical properties and probable antioxidant activities of the plants. Established colorimetric methods were used to investigate the antioxidants and the quantitative phytochemicals of the extracts. The study revealed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids and phenolics in all the three extracts, tannins is lacking in Chrysophyllum albidum while all the extract were tested negative for saponins. Z. mauritiania had the highest flavonoids and total phenolic contents with values of 87.03 ± 0.02 mg/g QE and 65.76 ± 0.03 mg/g GAE respectively. Z. spina christii showed  the highest vitamin C content 409.20 mg/100g, while, Z. mauritiania had the least 48.4 mg/100g of the three extracts. C. Albidum exhibited significantly (p<0.05) potent total antioxidant capacity compared to α-tocopherol (vitamin E) a known antioxidant. All the three extracts exhibited the ability of ferric reducing power compared to ascorbic acid (vitamin C). This work has shown the fruits extracts of C. albidum, Z. spina christii and Z. mauritiania to be of promising nutraceutical potentials as likely new sources of raw materials for industries requiring antioxidants as medicinal and therapeutic agents.