Antioxidant Activity of Ethanolic Extract of Bauhinia scandens

Abstract

Recently, much attention has been focused on the exploration of the ethnomedicine containing the antioxidant property for limiting the harmful effects of excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation in the body. Bauhinia scandens has been reported to exert antioxidant property however which part of the plant has not been fully elucidated yet. The study aimed to investigate the antioxidant activity of Bauhinia scandens especially in the bark and leaf parts. The antioxidant activity of this plant was measured using 1,1-diphenyl- 2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay method. The inhibitory concentration 50 (IC50) of each sample was calculated to show the antioxidant activity. The IC50 value of Bauhinia scandens barks and leaves ethanolic extract were 34.77 µg/ml and 113.50 µg/ml respectively and standard ascorbic acid (as positive control) IC50 was 79.57 µg/ml. To our knowledge, this is the first study to show Bauhinia scandens barks ethanolic extract exerts higher antioxidant activity compared to ascorbic acid. This activity may relate to the specific Phytochemicals in Bauhinia scandens.