Abstract
Methanolic extracts of 16 plant species, used in herbal and traditional medicinal preparations, collected from the same geographic region (Golcuk-Seben/Bolu, Turkey) were evaluated for their relative total phenolic contents, total antioxidant activities and their mineral contents in both dried plant samples and methanolic extracts. These species included Hypericum perforatum L., Thymus sipyleus Boiss., Equisetum arvense L., Achillea millefolium L., Tanacetum parthenium L., Thymus leucostomus Hausskn. & Velen., Usnea longissima, Herniaria incana Boiss., Teucrium polium L., Stachys bithynica Boiss., Anthemis nobilis L., Sambucus ebulus L., Berberis vulgaris L., Malus communis Desf., Matricaria chamomilla L. and Scorzonera laciniata L. Spectrophotometric Folin-Ciocalteu and DPPH free radical scavenging activity methods were performed to detect the total phenolic contents and total antioxidant activities of the methanolic extracts, respectively. The results show that the fruits of Berberis vulgaris L., have the highest antioxidant activity and aerial parts of Tanacetum parthenium L. have the highest total phenolics (92.62%). Mineral contents were determined by inductively coupled – mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). All dried plant samples and methanolic extracts contained high amounts of Si, Cu, Fe and Ca. The highest levels of Si, Cu, Fe and Ca were found in Equisetum arvense L., Anthemis nobilis L., and Thymus sipyleus Boiss. dried plant samples, whereas Se was only detected in Usnea longissima. The highest levels of Si, Cu, Fe and Ca were found in the methanolic extracts of Usnea longissima, Anthemis nobilis L. and Thymus sipyleus Boiss. respectively.
Highlights
Medicinal plants have a growing economic value in clinical, pharmaceutical, cosmeceutical, and other wide areas of international trade, this varies widely among countries (Schmidt, 2012).The plant extracts and phytochemicals isolated from these medicinal plants have been shown to exert biological activity in vitro and in vivo, which justified further research on traditional medicine focused on the characterization of their mostly antimicrobial and antioxidant activities (Deliorman Orhan et al, 2012)
Antioxidant activities, total phenolic and flavonoid contents In the present study, antioxidant activities were determined by using the diphenyl picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method and the values varied between 99.53-19.65% (Table 3)
Berberis vulgaris fruits had the highest antioxidant activity (99.53%) and it was followed by Achillea millefolium (97.21%), Equisetum arvense (92.55%) and Thymus leucostomus (91.63%)
Summary
The plant extracts and phytochemicals isolated from these medicinal plants have been shown to exert biological activity in vitro and in vivo, which justified further research on traditional medicine focused on the characterization of their mostly antimicrobial and antioxidant activities (Deliorman Orhan et al, 2012). Oxidative stress-induced reactive oxygen species are considered to be the indicators of the development and progress of various diseases. Antioxidants prevent the negative impacts of free radicals and reactive oxygen species and protect the body (Gavamukulya et al, 2014). The widely known synthetic antioxidants are butylated hydroxyltoluene (BHT), butylated hydroxylanisole (BHA), propyl gallate and tertiary butylhydroquinone. The reliability of these synthetic antioxidants has been debated due to their toxic and carcinogenic effects, which can result in liver injury. Discovery of new and reliable antioxidants from natural resources has become a prominent research topic (Birman, 2012)
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