Evaluation of oil profiles, total phenols and phenolic compounds in Prangos ferulacea leaves and flowers and their effects on antioxidant activities

Abstract

Abstract Prangos ferulacea is a well known and valuable medicinal plants and winter fodder in Iran. The present study aimed to investigate chemical components essential oils, aqueous and hydroalcoholic extracts of leaves and flowers of P. ferulacea and their effects on the antioxidant activities. Essential oils (EOs) were obtained by Clevenger-type apparatus and EOs components were identified by GC–MS analysis. Two solvent (hydroalcoholic and water) were used to prepare extracts then total phenolic and flavonoids compounds of the respected extracts were determined. DPPH assay were used to evaluate antioxidant activity of EOs and different extracts from different parts of plant. Flower EO yield and components were higher and more complex than leaves. The main components of leaves oil were α-Pinene (36.82%) and camphene (15.83%) while Flowers EO is dominated by α-Pinene (20.91%), bornylacetate (13.80%). According to our results EOs showed the weakest antioxidant activity while the highest activities were recorded for hydroalcoholic extracts. Hydroalcoholic extracts also contain more the total phenols and flavonoids which may explain their higher antioxidant capacity than aqueous. In both cases flower extracts showed significantly higher antioxidant capacity even more than BHT and ascorbic acid as synthetic antioxidant. The results demonstrated that hydroalcoholic extracts of flower and leaves of P. ferulacea can be considered as a potential alternative to chemical additives for the food industry as well as animal husbandry due to their appreciable antioxidant properties.