In vitro evaluation of antioxidant activity of Caryota mitis Lour. Leaves extracts

Abstract

Free radicles surly attack different tissues of the body causing serious cell damage and various inflammatory conditions. As a result, there is an urgent need for discovery of new and safe antioxidants of natural sources. DPPH• radicle scavenging assay is an accurate and precise spectrophotometric method used for determination of antioxidant activity, this depends on the measurement of degree of DPPH• color change from violet to yellow spectrophoto metrically. When this technique was applied on the total and different extracts in addition to two pure flavonoids isolated from the leaves of Caryota mitis Lour., the result revealed that the plant exhibited strong antioxidant activity relative to that of standard ascorbic acid which open the field for industrial formulation of new and safe antioxidant product.