ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY AND TOTAL PHENOLIC CONTENT IN ALLIUM URSINUM AND RANUNCULUS FICARIA

Abstract

Allium  ursinum  and  Ranunculus  ficaria,  some  perennial  herbs  that  are  consumed  in domestic  regions  in  Romania  especially  during  springtime,  are  considered  efficient  spring  tonic, giving a boost to our immune system. Ethanol extracts from their leaves were tested in vitro in order to evaluate their antioxidant potential by 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging assay  and  the  total  phenolic  content  was  also  determined.  A.  ursinum  leaves  extract  exhibit antioxidant activity over 77% with an EC 50  value of 322  μg/ml while R. ficaria leaves extract exhibit antioxidant activity over 80% with an EC 50  value of 88.6  μg/ml respectively, however higher than that of epigallocatechingallate (EC 50  value of 1.2  μg/ml) and gallic acid (EC 50  value of 0.8  μg/ml) which were used as positive control in this experiment. The amount of total phenolic content was 1.42 ± 0.09 g GAE/100g extract in the case of A. ursinum leaves extract and 1.79 ±0.11 g GAE/100g extract in the case  of  R.  ficaria  leaves  extract.  These  results  indicate  that  A.  ursinum  and  R.  ficaria  possess  an important potential to be used as functional food ingredient or nutraceutical.