Antioxidant Properties and Phenolic Composition of Alchemilla mollis from Turkey

Alchemilla mollis (Buser) Rothm. (Rosaceae) is also known as Lady's Mantle and native to southern Europe and grown throughout the world as an ornamental garden plant (Evenor et al., 2001). In folk medicine, lady's mantle was also used to soothe infections of the mucous membranes of mouth and throat. The leaf tea and dewdrops from the leaves of the living plant are most commonly employed to help female conditions such as menorrhagia, menopause and painful periods. Lady's mantle was also used traditionally for treating blood sugar control diseases, although no evidence exists to support its usefulness (Kisilova et al., 2006; Shrivastava et al., 2007).

Air-dried A. mollis herb material (100g) was powdered and sequentially extracted with hexane, ethyl acetate, methanol, and n-butanol using a Soxhlet apparatus for 8h for each. Thereafter, the extract was filtered and evaporated to dryness in vacuo at 40°C. All the extracts were analyzed in in vitro antioxidant assays.

The free radical scavenging activity of the extracts were investigated using 1,1-diphenylpicrylhydrazin (DPPH°) and 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS⁺°) radicals. Total phenols, flavonoids and flavonols, and reductive activity of the extracts were also analyzed. BHT, BHA, ascorbic acid, and gallic acid were used as positive controls. Polar fractions were found to be more active as antiradical assays. These active fractions were contained more tannins, especially galloyl tannins. Chemical composition and antiradical activity results of the A. mollis are the first report in the same research.

References: 1. Evenor D et al. (2001) Plant Cell Tiss Org 65: 169–172.

2. Shrivastava R et al. (2007) Phytother Res 21: 369–373.

3. Kiselova Yet al. (2006) Phytother Res 20: 961–965.