Natural antioxidants in plants have become a focus in nutritional studies with the belief that they are natural products which pose to be healthier and safe. The presence of non-nutritive plant chemicals (phytochemicals) has also been implicated to possess disease preventive and management properties. Citrus fruits are widely abundant especially in Nigeria which are mostly usurped for their juices while other plant/fruit parts are simply discarded. The rind and leaf of Citrus limonum (lemon) and Citrus aurantifolia (lime) fruits were dried, pulverized and thereafter assessed for their antioxidant and phytochemical constituents employing standard procedures. The study provides evidence for the presence of some phytochemicals such as flavonoids, alkaloids, terpenoids, saponins amongst others in the rind and leaf of both citrus. Of all the phytochemicals assessed, terpenoids ranked to be the highest in the rind of both Citrus limonum (1573.30 ± 16.11) and Citrus aurantifolia (771.62 ± 18.19) while phenolics ranked the lowest in the rind (45.36 ± 0.12) and leaf ( 0.17 ± 0.02) of Citrus limonum. Total antioxidant is predominant in the rind than in the leaf of both Citrus limonum and Citrus aurantifolia with (53.30 ±
0.22) and ( 19.46 ± 0.15) in the rind respectively. Overall, both selected plant parts can be advocated to be employed as adjunct in the remedy of health related diseases and also for industrial purposes.
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Volume 3 No 2