Original Articles
Tapan Seal, Kaushik Chaudhuri
Abstract
The present communication deals with the antioxidant activity of the benzene, chloroform, acetone and methanol extracts of five wild edible fruits e.g. Zanthoxylum armatum, Gomphogyne cissiformis, Gymnopetalum cochinensis, Artocarpus gomeziana, and Baccaurea sapida collected from Meghalaya state in India. The total phenolic content varied from 0.72 ±0.34 to 4.30±0.53 mg/g, 0.19 ±0.11 to 4.89±0.86 mg/g, 1.58 ±0.21 to 34.24±0.25 mg/g and 21.14 ± 0.23 to 96.19 ± 1.18 mg/g dry material in the benzene, chloroform, acetone and methanol extracts of the fruits respectively. Flavonoids and flavonols content were found highest in the acetone extract of Gymnopetalum cochinensis whereas least amount of flavonoids present in the acetone extract of Baccaurea sapida. 1,1-diphenyl- 2-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging effect of the extracts was determined spectrophotometrically. The highest radical scavenging was observed in the methanol extract of Artocarpus gomeziana with IC50 = 0.19±0.0005 mg dry material. The greater amount of phenolic compounds leads to more potent radical scavenging effect as shown by the methanol extract of Artocarpus gomeziana . The reducing power of the extracts of the plants were also evaluated as mg AAE (ascorbic acid equivalent)/g dry material. The results indicate that these wild edible fruits can be utilized as natural antioxidant.