Abstract

IN VITRO FREE RADICAL SCAVENGING ACTIVITY OF RAW LEAVES OF HENNA (LAWSONIA INERMIS)

Thirupathy Kumaresan P.* Subramaniyam M.

Abstract

The aim of this research was to investigate the antioxidant activity of henna leaves. The content of total phenols, flavonoid, the level of antioxidant potential by DPPH, OH radical, reducing power, chelation, FRAP and total antioxidant in water extract of Lawsonia inermis were determined. In all the methods the extract showed good scavenging activity. The EC50 values of raw water extract on DPPH radical, reducing power, ferrous ion chelation, FRAP and hydroxyl radical were found to be 69.25,0.159,0.0183,83.49,0.1887,0.01075,86.86,0.0245 and 0.8436 mg/ml, respectively. Substantial amount of phenol and flavonoids was noticed. The free radical scavenging and antioxidant characteristics of the extract may be due to the presence of polyphenols in the leaf extract. This study showed the potential of using fresh leaves to develop functional foods with high antioxidant activity

Keywords: Henn leaves, Total phenols, Flavonoids, Antioxidant, Scavenging activity.