PHYTOCHEMICAL STUDIES AND IN VITRO ANTIOXIDANT POTENTIAL OF TWO DIFFERENT EXTRACTS OF CRINUM JAGUS

The antioxidant potential of the aqueous and hydro/ethanolic (ethanol/water) extracts of Crinum jagus were explored considering their total phenolic, flavonoid and proanthocyan contents, 1.1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging activity, ferrous ions chelating ability and nitric oxide radical inhibiting activity. Hydroethanolic extract has exhibited the highest total polyphenols and flavonoids content as well as the highest DPPH inhibition value (56.71 ± 0.05 % at 320 µg/mL) and ferrous ions chelating ability (60.25 ± 0.22 % at 6 mg/mL), when the aqueous extract showed the highest proanthocyanes content, nitric oxide inhibiting activity comparable to that of ethanol/water extract (respectively 64.52 ± 0.03 % and 65.90 ± 0.43 % with 320 µg/mL extract). The IC₅₀ values of the DPPH and the ferrous ions inhibition were respectively 25.21 µg/mL and 4.69 mg/mL; the IC₅₀ value of nitric oxide inhibiting ability was 16.48 µg/mL and 16.14 µg/mL for the aqueous and hydroethanolic extracts respectively. The results indicate that, Crinum jagus might possess effective in vitro antioxidant activity which could be more marked with ethanol/water extract. It exerted its antioxidant activity probably by chelating metals, inhibiting nitric oxide and scavenging DPPH free radicals, through the total polyphenols and proanthocyanes, and partly the flavonoids components