%0 Journal Article
%T Loranthus pulverulentus: A Potent Source of Natural Antioxidants and Alternative Medicine
%A Muhammad Asam Raza
%A Rukhsana Kausar
%A Faraz Ali Rana
%A Muhammad Danish
%A Durre Shahwar
%A Farwa Anwar
%J Journal of Chemistry
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/250739
%X This study was designed to evaluate the antioxidant potential of Loranthus pulverulentus. Stem bark, leaves, and seeds of Loranthus pulverulentus were extracted in methanol:water (90£¿:£¿10) and partitioned with n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, and n-butanol successively using partition chromatography. Total phenolic contents and antioxidant potential were checked using standard protocols. Total phenolic contents of all extracts were determined, using Folin¨CCiocalteu reagent, and ranged between 151 ¡À 2.1 and 396 ¡À 1.6 for stem bark, 137 ¡À 0.9 and 430 ¡À 2.2 for, and 39 ¡À 0.6 and 231 ¡À 1.7 for seeds. The antioxidant potential of extracts was evaluated; namely, DPPH, FRAP, and total antioxidant models. The ethyl acetate extract of stem-bark, leaves, and seeds showed the highest activity in DPPH (94.5 ¡À 2.1%, 96.30 ¡À 0.9%, and 92.30 ¡À 1.1%, IC50 15.9 ¡À 0.5£¿¦Ìg, 14.5 ¡À 0.8, and 102.7 ¡À 1.3, resp.), FRAP (7.7 ¡À 0.6, 7.5 ¡À 0.7 and 6.6 ¡À 0.7, resp.), and total antioxidant (0.95 ¡À 0.09, 1.19 ¡À 0.09, and 0.686 ¡À 0.08, resp.). Strong correlations were observed between total phenols versus total antioxidant activity, DPPH, and FRAP with R2 values ranging from 0.8185 to 0.9951 (stem-bark), 0.6728 to 0.8648 (leaves), and 0.8658 to 0.9910 (seed) which indicated that phenolic contents are the major constituents responsible for antioxidant activity. 1. Introduction Plants are important for a healthier life, because they offer us medicines, which are safe, effective and cause no side effects. They play a fundamental role in our lives mainly due to their unusual collection of diverse classes of biochemicals with a variety of biological activities [1, 2]. Many medicinal plants contain antioxidants such as polyphenols, which can play an important role in capturing and neutralizing free radicals and quenching singlet and triplet oxygen. Many of these phytochemicals possess significant antioxidant capacities that are associated with lower occurrence and lower mortality rates of several human diseases [3]. Antioxidants are substances which counteract free radicals and prevent the damage caused by them. These can greatly reduce the adverse damage caused by oxidants by crumbling them before they react with biologic targets, preventing chain reactions, or preventing the activation of oxygen to highly reactive products [4]. The use of natural antioxidants for the treatment of free radical induced pathologies has certain advantages, because these agents produce no side effects, possess low toxicity, and effectively act upon the main factors damaging the vascular system. Plants are
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jchem/2013/250739/