Abstract:

Erica species (Ericaceae) are widely used due to their medicinal properties in Turkish folk medicine. In this study, the antioxidant capacities of the extracts with different polarities of the aerial parts of Erica arborea, E. manipuliflora, E. bocquetii and E. sicula subsp. libanotica native to Turkey were investigated. 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH•) radical scavenging and the thiobarbituric acid (TBA) test systems used for the determination of antioxidant capacities. Also, total phenol contents in the extracts were determined as spectrophotometric. All extracts exhibited strong scavenging activity against DPPH except the chloroform extracts. Ethyl acetate extracts of Erica species had the best scavenging activity against DPPH, as well as the highest DPPH scavenging activity was exhibited by E. manipuliflora and E. bocquetii with IC50 values of 0.002±0.001 and 0.004±0.000 μg/mL, respectively. In TBA test, the highest activity was observed in the ethyl acetate extract of E. manipuliflora (IC50= 0.001±0.000 μg/mL), followed by the water extract of this plant (0.03± 0.005 μg/mL). The highest total phenolic content was found in the ethyl acetate extracts ranging from 875.5 to 701.7 mg GAE/g extract. Our results showed that the ethyl acetate extracts of Erica taxa are rich in natural antioxidant substances.

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