Abstract

Globally, indigenous teas have been receiving much attention due to their health benefits. In most teas, for a particular plant part to be considered as harvestable, it must have a high accumulative ability for the focus chemical compound. However, appropriate plant parts with suitable chemical properties for tea brewing in Jatropha zeyheri has not been determined. Therefore, a study was conducted during mid-June and early July 2018 to investigate the effect of different plant parts (stems, roots and leaves) on phytochemical constituents and antioxidant activity of J. zeyheri. The plant materials were collected from Khureng Village, Lepelle-Nkumpi Municipality in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Three treatments, namely, stems, leaves and roots were arranged in a randomised complete block design (RCBD), replicated 10 times. Phytochemical constituents and antioxidant activity were quantified using UV/Visible spectrophotometer. Plant parts had highly significant effect on total flavonoid content contributing 72% in Total Treatment Variation (TTV), however, had significant effect on total tannin content and antioxidant activity contributing 56 and 79% in TTV, respectively. In contrast, plant parts were not significant on total phenol content. The leaf had the lowest of total flavonoid content, whereas root and stem reported the higher contents. The root had lower content of total tannin and antioxidant activity, whereas stem and leaf reported higher contents. The result of this study suggested that J. zeyheri tea beverage can be brewed from leaves predominantly followed by stems or alternatively they can be combined.