Fatty acid composition and antioxidant activity of Angelica glauca and Chenopodium album seed extracts from Kashmir

Angelica glauca Edgew. and Chenopodium album Linn. are medicinally important plants with aromatic, nutritious and flavor-enhancing properties. In this study the fatty acid composition of petroleum ether seed extracts (PE) of processed plants were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The PE consisted mainly of unsaturated fatty acids, such as petroselinic acid 74.26% and oleic acid 7.37% for A. glauca and linoleic acid 53.05% and oleic acid 20.74% for C. album. The de-fatted seed extracts were screened for their antioxidant activities using 2,2-di-phenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and 2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS) radical scavenging assay. Almost all the assays resulted in defatted seed extracts showing powerful radical scavenging activity. These findings suggest that the processed plants could be used as ingredients (as a source of natural antioxidants and unsaturated fatty acids) for the formulation of functional foods.