Bioactivity-guided fractionation for antioxidant property of Athyrium multidentatum (Doll) Ching. rhizome

In this paper, methanolic extract of Athyrium multidentatum (Doll) Ching. (AMC) rhizome was fractionated into three fractions (petroleum ether fraction (PEF), ethyl acetate fraction (EAF) and nbutanol fraction (BF)) on the basis of polarity. Each fraction had their antioxidant activities estimated employing various established in vitro systems, including superoxide/hydroxyl radical scavenging activity and reducing power. BF showed the strongest antioxidant activity and was chromatographed on a silica gel column followed by gradient elution. Fractions with CH2Cl2 – EtOAc 10:1, CH2Cl2 – EtOAc 5׃1~1׃1 and EtOAc – CH3OH 10׃1~1׃1 as eluent showed significant antioxidant activity against superoxide anion radical and reducing power. All the results showed that AMC could be potential rich sources of natural antioxidants.