Total Phenolic Content, Flavonoid Concentration and Antioxidant Activity of Orobanche Cernua Extracts

Free radicals such as reactive oxygen species are formed naturally in the living things cells that have important roles in cell signalling, also in environment some toxins may contain free radicals or stimulate the cells to produce free radicals. High amount of this compounds are hazardous to the cells and damage all major its components. Plant extracts and essential oils can be used as potentially useful sources of antimicrobial and antioxidant compounds. The antioxidant activities of plants are mainly attributed to their phenolic and flavonoid compounds [1]. In this study, in vitro antioxidant activity, total phenolic content and concentration of flavonoids of five different extracts, from the whole herb of Orobanche cernua were determined using spectrophotometric methods [2].Orobanche cernua is aparasite loss chlorophyll and leaves, from Orobanchaceae family. Orobanchaceae comprises about 170 species, mostly distributed in the temperate and semi-arid regions of the world. The genus Orobanche has 39 species in Iran of which nine taxa are endemic to Flora Iranica area [3]. The plant material was collected on April 2016 in Birjand area, in Iran. The aerial part and rootstock of plant were air- dried at ambient temperature in the shade and subjected to extraction by maceration method with water, ethanol, n-buthanol, ethylacetat and acetone. Total phenol and flavonoid content of the O. cernua extracts was determined by Folin-Ciocalteu and aluminum chloride methods, respectively. Antioxidant activity of extracts were expressed as percentage of DPPH radicals inhibition and IC50 values (μg/ml). Figure 1, below, shows the mechanism by which DPPH• accepts hydrogen from an antioxidant. Acetonic exstract of O. cernua showed the highest phenolic and flavonoid concentration and strong antioxidant activity