Antioxidant activity of the fruits of Pyracantha coccinea using ethanolic extract method

Abstract

Pyracantha coccinea Roem. (scarlet firethorn) is known as a medicinal plant that can be up to 3 m in height with lots of thorns, grown generally in South and Southeast Europe and Turkey. Pyracantha coccinea Roem is being used in folk medicine since its fruits have diuretic, cardiac and tonic properties. To determine the antioxidant level of the different parts of the plants takes interest in the current researches. In this study it has been aimed to evaluate the antioxidant and antimicrobial activity levels, Fe 3+ reduction power and the total phenolic amount of the ethanolic extracts of the fruits of Pryacantha coccinea using DPPH scavenging, the disc diffusion, reduction power and Folin-Ciocalteu methods, respectively. IC 50 value, which represents the 50% scavenging value of DPPH radical of prepared fruit extracts using the Maceration technique, is evaluated to be 36.53 µg/mL The total phenolic content is determined to be 199.6 mgGA/100g and Fe +3 ions are reduced to a certain amount for various concentration levels (from 20 to 100 µg/mL). From the current research we have also found that the fruits of Pyracantha coccinea have no any antimicrobial activity. As a general result of the current study it has been concluded that the fruits of Pyracantha coccinea have extremely higher level of antioxidant activity depending upon the phenolic contents, showing that they can be used in various food and health applications.