Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) belongs to the Iridaceae family. The stigma of saffron has been widely used as spice, medicinal plant, and food additive in the Mediterranean and Subtropical countries. Recently, attention has been paid to the identification of new sources of safe natural antioxidants for the food industry. The antioxidant activities of spices are mainly attributed to their phenolic and flavonoid compounds. Saffron is one of the spices believed to possess antioxidant properties, but information on its antioxidant activity and phenolic, flavonoids compound are rather limited, therefore this research was carried out to evaluate the antioxidant activity of saffron stigmas extracted with different solvents. The phenolic and flavonoid compounds of saffron were also examined using reversed phase (RP)-HPLC. Results showed that saffron stigma possess antioxidant activity. The free radical scavenging and ferric reducing power activities were higher for the methanolic extract of saffron stigma at a concentration of 300 μg/mL, with values of 68.2% and 78.9%, respectively, as compared to the corresponding boiling water and ethanolic extracts, but the activities were lower than those of antioxidant standards such as BHT and α-tocopherol. The obtained total phenolics value for methanolic saffron extract was 6.54 ± 0.02 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/g dry weight (DW), and for total flavonoids, 5.88 ± 0.12 mg rutin equivalent/g DW, which were also higher than values obtained from the ethanolic and boiling water extracts. In addition, the RP-HPLC analyses indicated the presence of gallic acid and pyrogallol as two bioactive compounds. In summary, saffron stigmas showed antioxidant activity and methanol appeared to be the best solvent to extract the active components, among which the presence of gallic acid and pyrogallol might contribute towards the stigma’s antioxidant properties. Hence, saffron stigma could be applied as a natural antioxidant source for industrial purposes.

Phaleria macrocarpa (Scheff.) Boerl (Thymelaceae) is commonly known as ‘Crown of God’, ‘Mahkota Dewa’, and ‘Pau’. It originates from Papua Island, Indonesia and it grows in tropical areas. Empirically, it is potent in treating the hypertensive, diabetic, cancer and diuretic patients. It has a long history of ethnopharmacological usage, and the lack of information about its biological activities led us to investigate the possible biological activities by characterisation of flavonoids and antimicrobial activity of various part of P. macrocarpa against pathogenic bacteria and fungi. The results showed that kaempferol, myricetin, naringin, and rutin were the major flavonoids present in the pericarp while naringin and quercetin were found in the mesocarp and seed. Furthermore, the antibacterial activity of different parts of P. macrocarpa fruit showed a weak ability to moderate antibacterial activity against pathogenic tested bacteria (inhibition range: 0.93–2.17 cm) at concentration of 0.3 mg/disc. The anti fungi activity was only found in seed extract against Aspergillus niger (1.87 cm) at concentration of 0.3 mg/well. From the results obtained, P. macrocarpa fruit could be considered as a natural antimicrobial source due to the presence of flavonoid compounds.

BackgroundPhaleria macrocarpa (Scheff.) Boerl (Thymelaceae) originates from Papua Island, Indonesia and grows in tropical areas. The different parts of the fruit of P. macrocarpa were evaluated for antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and cytotoxic activities.MethodsPhaleria macrocarpa fruit were divided into pericarp, mesocarp and seed. All parts of the fruit were reflux extracted with methanol. The antioxidant activity of the extracts were characterized in various in vitro model systems such as FTC, TBA, DPPH radical, reducing power and NO radical. Anti-inflammatory assays were done by using NO production by macrophage RAW 264.7 cell lines induced by LPS/IFN-γ and cytotoxic activities were determined by using several cancer cell lines and one normal cell lineResultsThe results showed that different parts (pericarp, mesocarp, and seed) of Phaleria macrocarpa fruit contain various amount of total phenolic (59.2 ± 0.04, 60.5 ± 0.17, 47.7 ± 1.04 mg gallic acid equivalent/g DW) and flavonoid compounds (161.3 ± 1.58, 131.7 ± 1.66, 35.9 ± 2.47 mg rutin equivalent/g DW). Pericarp and mesocarp showed high antioxidant activities by using DPPH (71.97%, 62.41%), ferric reducing antioxidant power (92.35%, 78.78%) and NO scavenging activity (65.68%, 53.45%). Ferric thiocyanate and thiobarbituric acid tests showed appreciable antioxidant activity in the percentage hydroperoxides inhibitory activity from pericarp and mesocarp in the last day of the assay. Similarly, the pericarp and mesocarp inhibited inducible nitric oxide synthesis with values of 63.4 ± 1.4% and 69.5 ± 1.4% in macrophage RAW 264.7 cell lines induced by LPS/IFN-γ indicating their notable anti-inflammatory potential. Cytotoxic activities against HT-29, MCF-7, HeLa and Chang cell lines were observed in all parts.ConclusionsThese results indicated the possible application of P. macrocarpa fruit as a source of bioactive compounds, potent as an antioxidant, anti inflammatory and cytotoxic agents.