<p>Bryophytes are the oldest known plants and have been utilised in traditional Chinese medicine since antiquity. The present study aimed to investigate the phytochemical composition and antioxidant activity of liverwort <i>Marchantia paleacea</i>. Soxhlet apparatus was used to prepare different solvent (water, methanol, acetone, petroleum ether and hexane) extracts of <i>M. paleacea.</i> The quantification of total phenols, flavonoids, terpenoids and tannins was carried out by implementing spectrophotometric techniques. The antioxidant activity of <i>M. paleacea</i> was determined using DPPH, ABTS⁺, metal chelating, total antioxidant capacity and FRAP assays. Furthermore, the functional groups and bioactive profile of the liverwort were studied employing FTIR, GC-MS and LC-MS techniques. The total phenols (141.5 mg GAE/g), flavonoids (118.31 mg RE/g), terpenoids (31.61 mg LE/g) and tannins (97.45 mg TAE/g) were significantly higher in methanol than other solvent fractions. Also, methanol extract exhibited the highest DPPH inhibition (99.7μg/ml), metal chelation (179.8μg/ml) and reducing potential (108.92 μM FeSO₄ E/g). The maximum ABTS⁺ scavenging (67.7μg/ml) and total antioxidant capacity (83.09 μg AAE/mg) were reported in acetone extract. The MS spectra of the methanol extract of <i>M. paleacea</i> showed the predominance of compounds: marchantins, palmitic acid β-monoglyceride, phytol and stigmasterol. Results indicate that the significant antioxidant activity of <i>M. paleacea</i> might be attributed to the polyphenols and bisbibenzyls.</p>