Evaluation of antioxidant activity of Mimosa pudica L. extracts

Abstract

Antioxidant activity of petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts of leaf, stem and root of Mimosa pudica L. was observed through DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) free radical scavenging assay. Five concentrations (12.5, 25.0, 50.0, 100.0 and 200.0µg/ml) were taken for each extract as well as the standard and the absorbances were measured at 517nm using a spectrophotometer against methanol blank. The activity was increased by the increment of concentrations of the extracts. In case of leaf, the highest scavenging percentage was found in chloroform extract (86.40%) at 200.0µg/ml concentration. But for stem and root, the highest scavenging percentages were found in ethyl acetate extracts (73.72% and 83.79% respectively) at same concentration. The ethyl acetate extracts showed the highest activity among all the extracts where the IC50 values were 65.152µg/ml, 76.036µg/ml and 65.000µg/ml and the lowest was found in petroleum ether extracts where the IC50 values were 130.129µg/ml, 147.891µg/ml and 186.449µg/ml for leaf, stem and root respectively and that was for ascorbic acid (standard) was 18.012µg/ml.