Daniella oliveri (Caesalpiniaceae), Sclerocarya birrea (Anacardiaceae), Maranthes polyandra

(Chrysobalanaceae), Ptelopsis suberosa (Combretaceae) have long been regarded as the medicinal plants. This

research work was designed to evaluate the polyphenolic content, and antioxidant activity of extracts and

fractions of these four plants of Burkina Faso. The extraction of the bioactive compounds was carried out by

hydroethanolic maceration followed by a liquid-liquid fractionation with solvents of increasing polarities. Total

phenols and flavonoids were determined by the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent and aluminum trichloride

spectrophotometer, respectively. The antioxidant activities of the samples were evaluated by various in vitro

assays like total reducing power, DPPH scavenging and ABTS radical cation decolorization assays. The highest

extraction yields were obtained with ethyl acetate and butanol fractions. Of these four plants, only the species

Ptelopsis suberosa had the highest levels of phenolic compounds. The total phenol and total flavonoid contents

were respectively 22.37 ± 0.21 mg EAG / 100 mg and 16.05 ± 0.13 mg EQ / 100 mg hydroethanolic extract, 21.31 ± 0.21 mg EAG / 100 mg and 11.82 ± 1.98 mg EQ / 100 mg ethyl acetate fraction and 18.07 ± 0.41 mg EAG / 100 mg and 11, 22 ± 1.31 mg EQ / 100 mg butanolic fraction. The low levels of phenolic compounds were obtained with the species Maranthes polyandra. The results of the antioxidant activities showed that the hydroethanolic extract of Ptelopsis suberosa and the fraction of ethyl acetate of Maranthes polyandra present the best antioxidant activities with respectively an IC50 of 0.36 ± 0.19 and 0.47 ± 0.12 μg/mL and an inhibitory power of the radical ABTS of 32.28 ± 0.68 and 34.81 mg /g. The present study demonstrated that these four plants are an important source of phenolic compounds and have interesting antioxidant properties.