Antioxidant Effect of Extracts Obtained from Four Aster Species Native to Korea

This study was conducted to evaluate the antioxidative potentials of 4 Aster species. Flowers and aerial parts were extracted with 80% ethanol, and antioxidative activities and bioactive substance contents were investigated. Flowers showed higher extraction yield than aerial parts of all 4 species used. Among the samples tested, Flowers of A. scaber were found to be the most effective in both DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging assay. However, chelate effect of all samples were lower than EDTA. Four samples(A. scaber flowers, A. sphathulifolius aerial parts, A. koraiensis flowers, A. scaber aerial parts) out of eight showed stronger inhibitory activities against linoleic acid oxidation than BHT at 8 days. Total polyphenol and flavonoid contents of A. scaber flowers(90.46 and ) were the highest, and followed by A. sphathulifolius flowers.