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Persea americana Mill (Luraceae) is one of the 150 varieties of avocado pear. The tree is widely cultivated in tropical and
subtropical areas and has diverse application in ethno–medicine. This study sought to investigate the inhibitory effect of the
phenolic extract of the leaves and fruit of P. americana on Fe2+ induced lipid peroxidation in rat’s pancreas in vitro. The
phenolics were extracted with 1M HCL and methanol solution (1:1), thereafter the total phenolic content and the
antioxidant activities of the phenolic extracts were evaluated using various spectrophotometric methods. The results
revealed that the Leaf had the highest total phenol content (43.82 mg GAE/g), flavonoid content (5.52 mg QUE/g) and
DPPH radical scavenging ability while the Seed had the highest OH radical scavenging ability. Furthermore, all the
extracts caused a significant decrease (P<0.05) in the MDA contents in the pancreas in a dose-dependent manner (0 – 175
μg/mL) with the seed (IC50 = 60.61 μg/mL) having the highest inhibitory effect on Fe2+ induced lipid peroxidation. In
conclusion, the phenolic extract of the leaf and fruit parts of avocado pear (P. americana) were able to protect the pancreas
from Fe2+ induced lipid peroxidation in vitro. Therefore, this protective effect of the phenolic extracts on Fe2+ induced lipid
peroxidation could be attributed to their phenolic compound and, the mechanism through which they possibly do this, is by
their Fe2+ chelating ability, radical scavenging abilities and reducing power.
Keywords: Lipid peroxidation; Malondialdehyde; Phenolic compounds; Antioxidant activities