Abstract:
Stenochlaena palustris or often called kelakai is a fern that found in the tropical and
subtropical forest and it thrives on peat soils also found to grow well in sandy soils.
Kelakai are widely use as vegetable and traditional medicine and are also known as
natural antioxidant sources. Previous research was reported the plant has an antioxidant,
antidiabetics and antimicrobial activity. The result of phytochemical test showed that
the plant contained secondary metabolities such as saponins, flavonoids and steroids.
The antioxidant activity of this plant was tested using DPPH method and ascorbic acid
used as a positive control. The result was n-hexane extract with values of IC50 433.60
μg/mL (AAI= 0.185), dichloromethane extract with values of IC50 54.91 μg/mL
(AAI=1.50), ethyl acetate extract with values of IC50 37.80 μg/mL (AAI= 2.12), water
extract with values of IC50 67.32 μg/mL (AAI= 1,19) and the positive control ascorbic
acid with values of IC50 3.46 μg/mL (AAI= 23.12). Based on that we can conclude that
dichloromethane and water extract showed strong activity, ethyl acetate extract showed
very active activity and have a potentials as antioxidant, eventhough its not well as the
positive control ascorbic acid which showed very active activity meanwhile the nhexane
extract showed weak activity.
