TOTAL PHENOLIC CONTENT AND IN - VITRO ANTIOXIDANT PROPERTY OF THE STEM EXTRACTS OF CALLICARPA MACROPHY LA

Several plants traditionally used in treatment of a variety of infections in South ern A sia are reported in ethnobotanical s urveys. Many of these plants including ca l licarpa macrophyla lack scientific reports to support their medicinal importance. The antioxidant activities and phenolic contents of the acetone, ethanol and aqueous extracts of the stems of Callicarpa macrophyla were evaluated using in vitro standard methods. The total phenol, total flavonoids and proanthocyanidin content were determined spectrophotometrically. Quercetin, Tannic acid and catechin equivalents were used fo r these parameters. The antioxidant activit ies of the stem extracts of this plant were determined by ABTS, DPPH, and ferrous reducing antioxidant property (FRAP) method s. The quantity of the phenolic compounds, flavonoids and proanthocyanidins detected differ significantly in the various extracts. The phenolics were significantly higher than the flavonoids and proanthocyanidin contents in all the extracts investigated. The ferric reducing ability and th e radical scavenging activities of the extracts were very high and dose - dependent. The ethanol ext ract had the highest antioxidant activity, followed by the acetone extract while the aqueous extract was the least active. Reacting with ABTS, the 50% inhibitory concentrations (IC 50 ) were (0.0429 ± 0.04 mg/ml) for aqueous, (0.0317 ± 0.04 mg/ml) for aceton e and (0.0306 ± 0.04 mg/ml) for ethanol extracts while they inhibited DPPH radical with 50% inhibitory concentration (IC 50 ) values of 0.0646 ± 0.02 mg/ml (aqueous), 0.0482 ± 0.02 mg/ml (acetone) and 0.0422 ± 0.03 mg/ml (ethanol). A correlation between the antioxidant activity and the total phenolic contents of the extracts indicated that phenolic compounds were the dominant contributors to the antioxidant activity of the plant. This study, therefore,