The antioxidant activity and free radical scavenging potential of two medicinals plants Salvia officinalis L. and Phlomis samia L

In recent years considerable attention has been devoted to medicinal plants with antioxidant properties. The properties are commonly postulated to play an important role in preventing diseases caused by oxidative stress, such as cancer, coronary arteriosclerosis, and the ageing process. And there is much literature concerning the antioxidant properties of many species of the genus Salvia, for their 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH.) free radical scavenging activities. Among them, Salvia officinalis L. leaf extracts have been shown to be the most active with effective dose (EC₅₀) of 17µg/ml, followed by the genus Phlomis by (EC₅₀=32µg/ml). This is for the first time studied in our search. For its high antioxidant activity, S. officinalis besides rosemary is widely used commercially in foodstuffs (3). The air-dried and powdered overground parts of each plant (500g) were macerated with MeOH (5000ml) over night and successively extracted with MeOH at 40°C. After filtration, the remaining plant material was then extracted with MeOH (2000ml) at 40°C for a second time. The combined methanolic extracts were evaporated under reduced pressure to give the crude methanolic extract.Total flavonoid compound amount in extracts was determined by Bhorun et al., 1996. The total phenolic compound amount in extracts was determined by Folin-Ciocalteu method, using the procedure of (Price and Butler, 1977).

Keywords: antioxidant activity, DPPH. activity, Linoleic acid peroxidation, Salvia officinalis, Phlomis samia

References:

Price MP and Butler LG (1977)J Agric Food Chem 25: 1268–1273.