Comparative Study for Citrus Fruits Peel Extract, Phytochemical Screening and In-vitro Antioxidant Activity

Abstract

Oxidative stress is one of the pharmacological & toxicology mechanisms and an important pathological mechanism proposed for many diseases including cancer . Antioxidants remove these free-radical intermediates and inhibit other oxidation thus stopping the harmful chain reactions for all living cells, There is an increasing interest in the antioxidants measurement of plant constituents which has antioxidant components replace synthetic ones, citrus genus which belongs to Rutaceae family includes some of the most widely cultivated crops in the world because of their many nutritional and health benefits. It is an important economically but the attention to leaves and peel had not given importance in comparison to fruits despite the presence of phenols quantity that varies among species, therefore, this comparative study aims involve ethanolic citrus peel extract preparation, phytochemical investigation and antioxidant determination of two different species Citrus maxima (pomelo) and Citrus sinesis (sweet orange) fruit peel. The preliminary phytochemical analysis of the prepared peel extract showed the presence of several constituents of citrus peels as alkaloids, phenolics, flavonoids and rutin. Moreover, the result of in-vitro antioxidants activity of both citrus species showed that DPPH radical scavenging activity for peel extract exhibit a significant dose dependent inhibition with IC50 was calculated (287.32 ug/ml and 341.89 µg/ml) for pomelo & orange respectively compared to IC50 value of vitamin C which was 260.06 µg/ml as standard antioxidant . in conclusion, study results showed that pomelo peel show higher antioxidant activity compared to orange moreover, the citrus peel has significant antioxidant properties and it is potentially rich sources of natural antioxidants and PPE exhibited great efficiency in scavenging DPPH and reactive oxygen radicals .