Antioxidant potential of aquatic plant Scirpus mucronatus found in water bodies of Dinajpur district, Bangladesh

Abstract

Generation of free radicals cause many problems in human body, but natural defense mechanism minimizes this problem. Synthetic antioxidants are commonly used but it associates with safety concern so antioxidants from natural origin are attracting researcher attention. Bangladesh enriches with many aquatic plants, and few are reported for human consumption and traditional medicine. To examine antioxidant potentiality, 14 (fourteen) aquatic plants were screening against radical scavenging assay and showed significant antioxidant activities. Among them Scirpus mucronatus was selected for others antioxidant assay (total phenolic content, radical scavenging, and reducing activity) as there are limited research on this aquatic plant. This aquatic plant showed DPPH radical scavenging activity of 55.61±0.51%, and total phenolic content of 30.53±0.71 mg GAE/g dry weight. ABTS radical scavenging, CUPRAC and FRAP assay exhibited significant antioxidant activity in concentration dependent manner as well. These assay results revealed antioxidant potentiality of S. mucronatus. Further experimental works are required to isolate its phenolic compounds and plausible application in different field as antioxidants.