Abstract
It is well known that oxidative stress due to free radicals can lead to many human illnesses, like cancer. Antioxidants are the agents which scavenge these free radicals and protect the biological system. Food of plant origin is an essential source of reliable antioxidants. These plant-derived antioxidants belong to many biochemical categories but most are phenolics or flavonoids. The Galyat region of Pakistan is rich in plant biodiversity, and local inhabitants frequently use medicinal plants to treat common ailments. Three of these common regional medicinal plants (Dryopteris ramosa, Quercus leucotricophora and Arisaema flavum) were selected and their free radical scavenging potential was investigated using DPPH assay. The crude extract of D. ramosa exhibited the maximum free radical scavenging potential (93.8 ± 0.2 %) while A. flavum (56.4 ± 0.4 %) showed the lowest radical scavenging potential at 250 µg/ml. A low SC50 value of the crude extract of D. ramosa (88.9 ± 0.4 µg/ml) confirmed the relatively high antioxidant potential of this plant species. Among the polarity-based fractions obtained from crude extract of D. ramosa, the ethyl acetate soluble fraction showed maximum free radical scavenging potential. The D. ramosa contained higher amounts of total phenolic and flavonoid compounds than Quercus and Arisaema species. A significant Pearson correlation at the 0.01 level (2 tailed) was also noticed between SC50 and total phenolic contents of all extracts. A significant difference in percentage scavenging activities of the various extracts was observed. The ethyl acetate soluble phase of D. ramosa may prove to be an especially useful source of natural antioxidants for a variety of medicinal uses. Further studies are in progress.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 368-373 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Bulgarian Chemical Communications |
Volume | 50 |
Issue number | 3 |
State | Published - 2018 |
Keywords
- Antioxidant
- Arisaema flavum
- Dryopteris ramosa
- Quercus leucotricophora
- Total flavonoids
- Total phenolics
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Chemistry