HPLC Profiling and Evaluation of In-vitro Antioxidant Activity of Cirsium arvense L. (Family: Asteraceae)

Abstract

This study evaluated HPLC analysis and in-vitro antioxidant activity of Cirsium arvense commonly known as Canada thistle that has been used to treat various diseases as traditional medicine. The different antioxidant assays such as DPPH free radical scavenging, nitric oxide scavenging, hydrogen peroxide scavenging, superoxide radical scavenging, reducing power, ferrous ions chelating ability, total phenolic, flavonoids and tannin contents were studied. Moreover, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with diode-array detection was used to identify and quantify the phenolic compounds present in C. arvense. The ethanol extract of Cirsium arvense showed dose-dependent antioxidant activity compared to the standard in different antioxidant activity tests. P-coumaric acid, rutin hydrate, quercetin and kaemferol were identified in the extract. Among the phenolic compounds, quercetin was abundantly present in the extract. Our exploration suggests that C. arvense contains high amount of phenolic compounds which may be responsible for its biological activities in folkloric medicine.