Abstract

THE IN VITRO ANTIOXIDANT PROPERTIES OF LEAF EXTRACTS OF CANTHIUM RHEEDII - A COMPARITIVE STUDIES.

Dhivya Ravichandran*, Kathiravan Govindarajan and Vidhya Doss

ABSTRACT

Antioxidants are vital substances which possess the ability to protect the body from damage caused by free radical induced oxidative stress. Various studies specify that many medicinal plants have the ability to inhibit the damaging behavior of free radicals in the human body. In the present study, antioxidant potential of six extracts of the leaves of canthium rheedii was evaluated using 1, 1-diphenyly-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging assay. The extract showed significant activities in the antioxidant assay compared to the reference antioxidant quercetin. In DPPH scavenging assay the IC50 value of dried leaves of methanol extract was found to be the highest i.e., 69.79μg/ml while the IC50 value of the reference standard quercetin was 97.60μg/ml. these results suggest that canthium rheedii may act as an effective and offering effective protection from free radicals.

Keywords: Canthium rheedii, Antioxidant, DPPH, Free radicals.