Antioxidant activity of Salak Sidempuan (Salacca zalacca) fruit with different solvents using the DPPH method

Free radicals in the body are a by-product of the oxidation and burning of cells that take place in the body. If this reaction occurs continuously in the body and does not stop, it will cause oxidative stress, impacting health problems. The presence of antioxidants can reduce oxidative stress that arises. Antioxidants are compounds that can capture free radicals because they can donate one electron. Antioxidants can obtain from fruits, one of which is Sidempuan salak fruit. Based on this, this study aims to determine the antioxidant activity of Sidempuan salak fruit using the DPPH method. Salak sidempuan was obtained from three different villages: Sitinjak Village, Sibangkua Village, and Hutalambung Village. In the DPPH test, three other solvents were used: ethanol, methanol, and n-hexane. The results obtained are that methanol solvents increase the antioxidant ability of salak sitinjak to reduce the oxidation process, where the IC50 value of 31771.67 mg/L is smaller than the use of ethanol as a solvent. Using ethanol as a solvent can increase the ability of Sitinjak bark to reduce the oxidation process by 90.31% inhibition. The use of methanol as a solvent increased the antioxidant capacity of salak sitinjak 82.04 mg vitamin C/100g compared to salak Sibangkua and Hutalambung. These results could conclude that using different DPPH solvents in Sidimpuan salak can produce antioxidant activity despite its weak ability. Among the three Sidimpuan salaks, Sitinjak salak has the best antioxidant activity when using methanol as a solvent.