Abstract
n-Butanol extracts of nine medicinal plants, Cressa cretica, Ziziphus spina-christ, Acacia tortilis, Tephrosia haussknechti, Aristolochiae bracteolata, Citrullus colocynthis, Teucrium mascatense, Rhazya stricta and Nerium oleander, found in Oman were screened for their antioxidant activity using phosphomolybdenum complex assays and their radical scavenging activity using DPPH assays. Ocimumi basilicum, a plant with well documented antioxidant activity, was used as a reference. A. tortilis, and T. haussknechti extracts possessed very high antioxidant activity (AOA) and high radical scavenging activity (RSA).
Highlights
Spices have been used since ancient times to improve taste and aroma of different types of food and some of them are well known for their antioxidant properties (Madsen and Bertelsen, 1995)
The present work deals with preliminary studies on the antioxidant and radical scavenging activities of the n-butanol extracts prepared from the following plants: Cressa cretica (Convolvulaceae), Ziziphus spina-christi (Rhamnaceae), Acacia tortilis (Leguminosae), Tephrosia haussknechtii (Leguminosae), Aristolochiae bracteolata (Aristolochiacae), Citrullus colocynthis (Cucurbitaceae), Teucrium mascatense (Labiatae), Rhazya stricta (Apocynaceae) and Nerium oleander (Apocynaceae) which are readily available plants growing in northern Oman
2.1 DPPH radical-scavenging activities The n-BuOH extracts of the plants were prepared as described in section 3 and their free radical scavenging activity was determined by DPPH free radical method (Brand-Williams et al, 1995)
Summary
Spices have been used since ancient times to improve taste and aroma of different types of food and some of them are well known for their antioxidant properties (Madsen and Bertelsen, 1995). The present work deals with preliminary studies on the antioxidant and radical scavenging activities of the n-butanol extracts prepared from the following plants: Cressa cretica (Convolvulaceae), Ziziphus spina-christi (Rhamnaceae), Acacia tortilis (Leguminosae), Tephrosia haussknechtii (Leguminosae), Aristolochiae bracteolata (Aristolochiacae), Citrullus colocynthis (Cucurbitaceae), Teucrium mascatense (Labiatae), Rhazya stricta (Apocynaceae) and Nerium oleander (Apocynaceae) which are readily available plants growing in northern Oman. Even though the reports on flavonoid isolation from A. tortilis (Muhaisen et al, 2002) are available in the literature, the information on antioxidant properties of this plant are not found. Flavonoids were present in all organs of the plant (Duret and Paris, 1977), but roots and the leaves of N. oleander contain triterpenoids (Begum et al, 1997) with no antioxidant properties reported in the literature.
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