Investigation of Antioxidant Activities and Hypoglycemic Effect of Black and White Myrtle Fruits

Abstract

Fruits, are in black or white colour Mrytus communis, is known as locally name murt, hambales, mersin. It is an aromatic and medicinal plant that grows naturally in maquis form in regions with Mediterranean climate. We aimed to investigate the hypoglycemic effect and antioxidant activity of Myrtus communis L. in this research. White-black myrtle were collected from Hassa-Hatay and Tarsus-Mersin, respectively in October. Fruits were separated from the leaves and dried in the oven at 40ºC. Fruit extracts were obtained in absolute ethanol (1:15) by using magnetic stirrer at the room temperature for one day. In this study, radical scaving activity-(DPPH), the hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity-(HPSA), metal chelating activity-(MCA), ferric reducing antioxidant power activity-(FRAP), total phenol-flavonoid contents and α-amylase, α-glycosidase inhibition were examined to determine characteristics of samples. DPPH and HPSA values were expressed as µg/ml in terms of SC50. FRAP and MCA features of extract were given as % activity. The hypoglycemic effect was investigated with -amylase--glucosidase inhibition assays. The DPPH-HPSA-FRAP-MCA of white-black myrtle samples were found 56.75-63.52 µg/ml, 193.95-207.73 µg/ml, 81.68-90.87%, and 20.88-27.71%, respectively. When the antioxidant results compare with the used standards such as Buthylated-Hydroxy-Anisole, Rutin, Trolox, white-black myrtle samples have effective antioxidant activity. Samples have shown hypoglycemic effect.