Antioxidant Activity of Selected Medicinal Plants of Pakistan

Abstract

Objective The objective of the study was to investigate the antioxidant activity of selected medicinal plants. Method Collected plant species were subjected to maceration in methanol for 72 hrs. Antioxidant activity of plant extracts was assessed by using DPPH free radical scavenging method in different concentrations (1 µg/ml, 3 µg/ml, 5 µg/ ml, 7 µg/ml and 10 µg/ml) and percentage inhibition and effective concentration (EC50) values were calculated. Result Result indicates that, EC50 of D. boryanum (3.75 µg/ml) and P. guajava (3.89 µg/ml) was less, EC50 of R. nepalensis (5.03 µg/ml) and S. japonica (6.75 µg/ml) was comparable and EC50 M. macrophylla (7.86 µg/ml), B. asiatica (9.14 µg/ml), E. adenophorum (7.78 µg/ml), E. crassipes (8.21 µg/ml), and N. arbortritis (8.16 µg/ml) was slightly higher than ascorbic acid (4.73 µg/ml). Conclusion Our result shows that, D. boryanum and P. gvajava possess higher antioxidant activity than the ascorbic acid implying that, they could be good free radical scavenging agents and should be urbanized as a future pharmaceutical agent.