1011
when oil palm leaves were extracted in methanol-polar solvent extraction obtained the highest
yield (8.28%).
Chemical composition
The moisture content was 30.24%, the crude protein content was 5.12% on a dry matter
(DM) basis. The lipid content was 52.94 g oil/100 g oil palm fruit.
Phytochemical study (Qualitative analysis)
Based on the highest yield obtained from Table 1, methanol was chosen for further used
for extraction and phytochemical screening. The quantitative analysis o f the phytochemicals in oil
palm fruit revealed the presence of phenolic compounds, flavonoids, tannins, coumarins,
alkaloids, saponins, terpenoids and steroids, and carbohydrates (Table 2).
Table 2
Qualitative analysis of the phytochemical constituents of oil palm fruit extracted with
methanol.
Group of phytochemicals
Test
Results
Alkaloids
Dragendorff’s test
++
Mayer’s test
++
Coumarins
NaOH test
++
Phenolic compounds
Gelatin test
++
Saponins
Frothing test
++
Tannins
FeCl
3
test
++
Terpenoids and Steroids
Salkowski test
++
Flavonoids
Shinoda test
++
Carbohydrate
Benedict test
++
+ indicates presence; number of (+) indicates number of replication
Qualitative analysis of phytochemical in oil palm fruit
The qualitative analysis results in Table 2 showed promising phytochemical properties
presence in oil palm fruit. Therefore, a proximate analysis of phytochemicals using methanolic
extract of oil palm fruit was performed to further quantify the amount of t hese properties and
results are shown in Table 3. The result suggests that oil palm fruit are rich in saponin, tannin,
carbohydrate and protein. The total alkaloids content was 1.6±0.1 mg/g dry weight (DW),
contributed the least amount of phytochemicals in this study. The flavonoid content of the
extract was 0.3±0.1 mg QE/g DW. The flavonoid content was calculated in terms of quercerin
equivalent. The content of total phenolic was 0.3±0.01 mg GAE/g DW, which was measured in
terms of gallic acid equivalent. The content of tannin and saponin in extract contained 3.5±0.1
mg TAE/g DW, which is the highest amount among the phytochemical group in this study.
