Comparative evaluation of the antioxidant potential of some Iranian medicinal plants

Abstract Medicinal plants are a source for a wide variety of natural antioxidants. In the study reported here, we have conducted a comparative study between five medicinal plants having the same geographic origin: the Hamadan region in the west of Iran and growing in the same natural conditions. The amount of total phenolics and total flavonoids for parts of these plants used in Iranian popular medicine were evaluated. Furthermore, antioxidant activities for these parts using vitamin C equivalent antioxidant capacity (VCEAC) test were also evaluated. The results show that the antioxidant activities varied greatly among the different plant parts used in this study and some plants are rich in natural antioxidants especially leaves of Lavandula officinalis and of Melissa officinalis . A positive correlation between total phenolic or flavonoid contents and VCEAC was found with a correlation coefficient of R 2  = 0.961 and R 2  = 0.817, respectively. These findings show that phenolics in these plants provide substantial antioxidant activity.