Phenolic-driven antioxidant activity, metabolite profiling, and in vivo antipyretic effect of Kalanchoe ceratophylla aqueous leaf extract.

The plant juice of Kalanchoe ceratophylla has been reported to be traditionally used in fever treatment. Currently, this plant has been claimed to have antioxidant activity due to its flavonoid compound. This study aims to evaluate the correlation between antioxidant activity of the K. ceratophylla aqueous extract with total phenolic and flavonoid content, determine the metabolite profile of the extract, and investigate the antipyretic effect of the extract in vivo. The extract was obtained through maceration method with aquadest 1:5. The total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) were calculated using the Folin-Ciocalteu and aluminum chloride method, respectively. Furthermore, the antioxidant activity was determined by DPPH free radical scavenging procedure. The metabolite profile of the extract was analyzed using GC-MS. The antipyretic assay was conducted in animal model using yeast-induced rat. In general, the antioxidant activity of the aqueous extract of K. ceratophylla more correlated to TPC (r = 0.711) than TFC (r = 0.500), with DPPH scavenging activity was 1.89 ± 0.01%. The metabolite profile supported this finding through dominant compound of the extract including fatty acid, phenolic acid, and carboxylic acid class. K. ceratophylla was revealed the antipyretic activity in animal test with dose of 500 mg/kg bw (AUC0-180 min = 6547.80 ± 5.87), which comparable to paracetamol as standard drug (AUC0-180 min = 6555.90 ± 8.40) and similar to the normal group (AUC0-180 min = 6503.40 ± 3.66). These findings offer the scientifical evidence of empirical information of K. ceratophylla in fever treatment.