Original Articles
Donghai Li, Jing Zhou, Jiayan
Abstract
The antioxidant activities of ethanolic crude extract (ECE) and its five different solvent sub-fractions (namely, petroleum ether fraction (PEF), dichloromethane fraction (DMF) ethyl acetate fraction (EAF), n-butyl alcohol fraction (BAF) and the rest fraction (RF) from Clerodendrum inerme were investigated using several in vitro antioxidant assays. ECE and five sub-fractions possessed different antioxidant and radical-scavenging activities in different assays. BAF showed the most potent radical-scavenging activity on DPPH radicals with EC50 value of 0.28 mg/ml. EAF exhibited the highest ABTS radicals with EC50 value of 0.46 mg/mL. The total phenolics contents (TPC) and total flavonoid contents (TFC) were also determined. RF had the highest TPC (10.73 mg GAE/g DW), and BAF had the highest TF contents C (3.81 mg RT/g DW). Our work offers theoretical basis for C. inerme as a potential source of natural antioxidants.