Original Articles ; Screening for Antioxidant activity of Plants and Marine Algae and Its Active Principles from Prunus davidiana

Abstract

The antioxidant activity of methanol extracts of plants and marine algae was tested by using 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl(DPPH), Five plant extracts(Prunus davidiancc, Eriobotrya japonica, Artemisia iwayomogi, Stirodella tolyrrhiza and Ulmus davidiana) and two algae (Ecklonia stolonifera .and Symphycoladia latiuscula) were found to be the most effective in DPPH radical scavenging activity. The methanol extract obtained from the stems of Prunus davicliana was fractionated with several solvents. The ethylacetate soluble fraction exhibiting the strongest antioxidant activity was further purified by repeated silica gel and Sephadex LH-20 column chromatography. Antioxidant flavonoids and flavonoid glycosides were isolated and the most active ones was identified as (+)-catechin by MS, ¹H-NMR and ^(13)C-NMR. Its antioxidant activity was higher than that of vitamin C.