Argentinian northwest plants as source of natural antioxidants

SOBERÓN, J.R.; QUIROGA, E.N.; VATTUONE, M.A.

Tucumán (Argentina)

Congreso; XXI Annual Meeting of Tucuman Biology Society; 2004

Tucuman Biology Society (publicado en Bio Cell 29 (1))

The oxidation of biomolecules is mediated by free radicals or reactive oxygen species. An overproduction of species such as superoxide anion (:O-O•-), alkyl radical (Rá) hidroxyl radical (HO•), alcohoxyl radical (RO•) and alkylperoxyl radical (ROO•) is called oxidative stress, and is harmful for lipids, proteins, carbohydrates and nucleic acids. This damage is related with various pathologies (inflammation, cancer generation, etc.) The present study compares and evaluates the antioxidant activity of different plant extracts. Three forms of plant extractions (infusion, decoction and tincture) were prepared from the air parts of 4 plant species. The DPPH assay, superoxide anion reaction and deoxirybose assay were carried out for the determination of the IC50 (inhibithory concentration 50). The results shows that extracts from T. acutifolius, P. cuneifolius, L. sibiricus and j. rhombifolia have a powerfull antioxidant effect against species as superoxide anion, alkyl and alcohoxyl radicals. The IC50 values were lower than those of known antioxidant patterns, such as quercetin, manitol and ascorbic acid. This suggest the potential use of plants as an important antioxidant molecules source.