Antioxidative Activities and Tyrosinase Inhibition of Water Extracts from Ailanthus altissima

Water extracts from root, stem and leaf of Ailanthus altissima were utilized to determine antioxidant properties such as electron donating ability (EDA), nitrite scavenging ability, superoxide dismutase (SOD)-like activity, and the inhibitory activities of xanthine oxidase (XO) and tyrosinase. The EDA of root extract was the highest as 77.33% at 0.5 mg/mL concentration and that of stem extract was 70.01% at 1.0 mg/mL. The nitrite scavenging ability of leaf extract revealed the highest effect as 95.18% at pH 1.2, 1.0 mg/mL while those of stem and root extracts were 55.17% and 33.33%, respectively. The leaf extract showed the highest SOD like activity as 26.77% at 1.0 mg/mL, the measurement of root extract was 3.82% and that of stem extract was not effective. All kinds of extracts had strong inhibitory activities on XO of over 92% at 1.0 mg/mL. The highest activity on tyrosinase inhibition was obtained from leaf extract of 16.33% at 2.0 mg/mL. The results indicated that among the three extracts, the leaf extract has a strong and extensive antioxidant activity.