Umbelliferone – An antioxidant isolated from Acacia nilotica (L.) Willd. Ex. Del.

The bark and leaves of Acacia nilotica are consumed for their promising medicinal properties in several parts of the world. The aerial portion, including flowers, is used as fodder for animals. This study aimed to isolate the functional components of A. nilotica and to check their antioxidant activities in vitro. In the fractionation of methanol extract, a fraction, AN-2, was isolated, which was identified by spectroscopic techniques, namely NMR and mass spectroscopy to be a coumarin derivative, i.e. umbelliferone. The antioxidative activities, including the DPPH, deoxyribose (site and non-site specific), chelating power, reducing power and lipid peroxidation assays, were studied in vitro and performed in the Dept. of Botanical and Env. Sciences, GNDU, Amritsar. It was found that the antioxidative effect of umbelliferone was dose-dependent up to 100 μg/ml and then levelled off with no further increase in activity. This is the first report of the isolation and antioxidant potential of umbelliferone from A. nilotica.