Preliminary assessment of antioxidant activity of young edible leaves of seven Ficus species in the ethnic diet in Xishuangbanna, Southwest China

► Young leaves of seven Ficus species contain considerable phenolics and flavonoids. ► Extracts of the young leaves exhibit excellent in vitro antioxidant capacities. ► Phenolics and flavonoids act as important antioxidants. ► Young leaves of two Ficus species show notable antioxidant potential. The...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Food chemistry 2011-10, Vol.128 (4), p.889-894
Main Authors: Shi, Yin-Xian, Xu, You-Kai, Hu, Hua-Bin, Na, Zhi, Wang, Wen-Hui
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antioxidant activity
antioxidants
Biological and medical sciences
diet
Feeding. Feeding behavior
Ficus
Ficus species
Flavonoids
Food industries
Free radicals
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
leaf extracts
leaves
Lipid peroxidation
people
Phenolics
Reducing power
screening
statistical analysis
Vertebrates: anatomy and physiology, studies on body, several organs or systems
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Summary:► Young leaves of seven Ficus species contain considerable phenolics and flavonoids. ► Extracts of the young leaves exhibit excellent in vitro antioxidant capacities. ► Phenolics and flavonoids act as important antioxidants. ► Young leaves of two Ficus species show notable antioxidant potential. The young leaves of seven Ficus species including F. virens var. sublanceolata, F. auriculata,F. vasculosa, F. callosa,F. virens var. verins,F. racemosa and F. oligodon are traditionally consumed by local people in Xishuangbanna. The dry young leaves were studied for their total phenolic and flavonoid contents. The 90% ethanolic extracts of the young leaves were screened for potential antioxidant capacity by employing different in vitro assays including ABTS+ and DPPH radical scavenging capacities, ferric reducing power and lipid peroxidation inhibition properties. Extracts from F. virens var. sublanceolata and F. auriculata showed higher antioxidant activity in all the systems than other species. We concluded that these two species are promising sources of natural dietary antioxidants. According to our statistical analysis, the total phenolic and flavonoid contents appear to be responsible, at least in part, for the extracts’ excellent antioxidant capacity and all the extracts exhibited dose-dependent antioxidant activity.
ISSN:0308-8146
1873-7072
DOI:10.1016/j.foodchem.2011.03.113