In vitro antioxidant activity and selenium content of some important wild edible plants from arid zone

Abstract

Inverse relationship is seen between dietary intake of antioxidant-rich foods and incidence of number of human diseases. They play an important role in chemoprevention of diseases viz., cancer, AIDS, arthritis, osteoporosis, CNS injury. There are a number of local foods from arid zone of Rajasthan used traditionally which may have potential positive effects on health but antioxidant properties of edible wild plants have not been determined. Present study is an attempt to explore some of the promising wild edible plant resources of arid zone of Rajasthan for their antioxidant potential by studying their DPPH activity and selenium content. The antioxidant activity of the selected plant species determined by DPPH assay was found to vary from 38.99 to 89.48% . The selenium content in the selected wild edible plants varied from 2.53 μg/g (Grewia tenax) to 3.49 μg/g (Leptadenia reticulata) on dry wt basis. The antioxidant values and selenium content values suggest that these plants can be used as supplementary food . Studies are however needed to study the effect of cooking, processing, geographical variation and in vivo trials.