Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of selected medicinal plants containing phenolic and flavonoid compounds

Lin Zhang, Anjaneya S. Ravipati, Sundar Rao Koyyalamudi, Sang Chul Jeong, Narsimha Reddy, Paul T. Smith, John Bartlett, Kirubakaran Shanmugam, Gerald Münch, Ming Jie Wu

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    324 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and cytotoxic activities of water and ethanol extracts of 14 Chinese medicinal plants were investigated and also their total phenolics and flavonoid contents measured. The antioxidant activity was evaluated in a biological assay using Saccharomyces cerevisiae, whereas the radical scavenging activity was measured using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method. Total phenolics and flavonoid contents were estimated by Folin-Ciocalteu and aluminum chloride methods, respectively. The anti-inflammatory activities of the plant extracts were determined by measuring the inhibition of production of nitric oxide (NO) and TNF-α in LPS and IFN-γ activated RAW 264.7 macrophages. Their cytotoxic activities against macrophages were determined by Alamar Blue assay. Four plants, namely, Scutellaria baicalensis, Taxillus chinensis, Rheum officinale, and Sophora japonica, showed significant antioxidant activity in both yeast model and also free radical scavenging methods. The ethanol extract of S. japonica showed highest levels of phenolics and flavonoids (91.33 GAE mg/g and 151.86 QE mg/g, respectively). A positive linear correlation between antioxidant activity and the total phenolics and flavonoid contents indicates that these compounds are likely to be the main antioxidants contributing to the observed activities. Five plant extracts (S. baicalensis, T. chinensis, S. japonica, Mahonia fortunei, and Sophora flavescens) exhibited significant anti-inflammatory activity by in vitro inhibition of the production of NO and TNF-α with low IC₅₀ values. These findings suggest that some of the medicinal herbs studied in this paper are good sources of antioxidants.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)12361-12367
    Number of pages7
    JournalJournal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
    Volume59
    Issue number23
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2011

    Keywords

    • aluminum chloride
    • anti-inflammatory agents
    • antineoplastic agents
    • antioxidants
    • flavonoids
    • macrophages
    • medicinal plants
    • medicine, Chinese
    • phenols

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