Antioxidant properties of certain South Indian medicinal plants

Abstract

Polyphenols and flavonoids are the most abundant compounds in nature. They are strong antioxidants. Antioxidant plays an important role in inhibiting and scavenging free radicals, thus providing protection to human against infection and degenerative diseases. Now the modern research is directed towards “Natural antioxidants” from the herbal plants due to safe therapeutic. (Abdul Quiyum Ansari et al., 2013). In the present paper antioxidant study of ethanolic extracts of six medicinal plants, namely Gynodropsis pentaphyllum (Capparidaceae family), Solanum nigrum (Solanaceae family), Merremia gangitica (Convolvulaceae family), Cicca acida (Euphorbiaceae family), Erythrina variegata (fabaceae family) and Asparagus fysoxii (Asparagaceae family) has been made for its free radical scavenging ability by adopting various in vitro methods. The extracts from these plants were investigated for the antioxidants property using 2,2- diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging method and the Ferric Reducing Ability of Plasma (FRAP) activity method.