Abstract
Several plants of the Rubiaceae family possess potential pharmacological properties, such as antioxidant activity, for subsequent drug development. We investigated the methanolic extracts from the bark and wood of five Rubiaceae species for phenolic and flavonoid contents and antioxidant activity. Regarding the phytochemical contents and antioxidant activity, Mitragyna diversifolia wood (437.57 ± 9.90 mg GAE g-1) and Haldina cordifolia wood (30.11 ± 0.20 mg QE g-1) displayed the highest total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) respectively. Morinda coreia bark followed the highest antioxidant activities (IC50 = 360.58 ± 19.28 µg ml-1) in the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging activity (DPPH), Catunaregam tomentosa bark (IC50 = 13.96 ± 5.32 µg ml-1) in the nitric oxide radical scavenging activity (NO), M. coreia wood (IC50 = 918.27 ± 0.16 µg ml-1) in the superoxide radical scavenging activity (SO) and M. coreia wood (IC50 = 236.65 ± 1.66 µg ml-1) in ferric reducing antioxidant power activity (FRAP). The TPC and TFC displayed strong correlations with DPPH in M. diversifolia wood and with FRAP in M. diversifolia bark and wood. We found high correlation between TFC and FRAP in all plant extracts except C. tomentosa wood, while no relation was detected between TFC and NO in all plant extracts. Comparing Rubiaceae species, the highest antioxidant potential were showed in C. tomentosa bark. Overall, it is worth mentioning that the Rubiaceae species exhibit potential as a promising source of natural antioxidants.
Highlights
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are a class of chemical products that are formed from oxygen metabolism and largely contribute to oxidative stress, which damages lipids, proteins and DNA [1, 2]
In order to fully reflect the antioxidant activity of the five Rubiaceae species (Fig. 1), four well-known antioxidant methods, including 2,2-diphenyl-1picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), nitric oxide (NO), superoxide (SO) radical scavenging activity, and ferric reducing antioxidant power activity (FRAP), were employed
Quantification of total phenolic content (TPC) is usually carried out by the Folin-Ciocalteu method, while the AlCl3 method is used for determination of the total flavonoid content (TFC)
Summary
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are a class of chemical products that are formed from oxygen metabolism and largely contribute to oxidative stress, which damages lipids, proteins and DNA [1, 2]. Since oxidation and oxidative damage to cellular components and biomolecules have been related to several diseases, many studies have investigated the relationship between oxidative damage and cancer [4], liver disease [5], Alzheimer’s disease [6], aging [7], arthritis [8], inflammation [9], diabetes [10], Parkinson’s disease [11], atherosclerosis [12] and AIDS [13] Based on such literature, medicinal plants are commonly used to treat diseases due to their therapeutic properties and powerful antioxidant activity. Various species from the Rubiaceae family have proven to be a promising source for the development of new potential metabolites and drug prototypes because of their diversity and pharmacology properties [14] Their wide range of secondary metabolites include anthraquinones, alkaloids, coumarins, flavonoids and terpenes, which display pharmacological properties [15]. Medicinal plants from the Rubiaceae family have been reported to possess rich antioxidant activity [16,17,18,19,20], supporting their use in therapeutics
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