Abstract

Considerable interest has been given on dietary antioxidants with reference to their protective role against oxidative damage. The current study is designed to evaluate the antioxidant activity of four aromatic herbs generally consumed in Bangladesh i.e. Mentha viridis, Mentha arvensis, Coriandrum sativum and Eryngium foetidum. Therefore, total phenolic content, total flavonoid content and radical scavenging activity are determined by DPPH assay. The highest phenolic and flavonoid content is observed in Mentha viridis which is 100.67±2.08 mg GAE/g sample extract and 384.21±1.81 mg RUE/g sample extract respectively and the lowest in Eryngium foetidum. The antioxidant activity (percent inhibition) is the highest in Mentha arvensis followed by Mentha viridis with increasing concentrations ranging between 3μg/mL-100μg/mL and showed better activity than standard ascorbic acid. Mentha arvensis exerted the minimum IC50 value (26.21±2.08 μg/mL) which is in accordance with its maximum DPPH radical scavenging activity. Total phenolic and flavonoid content are positively related with the radical scavenging percentage of Coriandrum sativum and Eryngium foetidum whereas Mentha viridis and Mentha arvensis are not significantly related. It might be concluded that polyphenols, flavonoids are main components but other phytochemicals could contribute towards radical scavenging activity. However, studied materials altogether posses good antioxidant activity.

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