COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE IN VITRO ANTIOXIDANT PROPERTIES OF DIFFERENT EXTRACTS OF ETHULIA CONYZOIDES

The present study was aimed to examine the in vitro antioxidant potential of Ethulia conyzoides aerial parts extracts. Different parts of E. conyzoides have been employed in traditional medicine for treating several diseases. Solvents of different polarity (petroleum ether, acetone and ethanol) were used to prepare extracts of the plant for determining their in vitro antioxidant activities using diverse in vitro assays. The antioxidant activity was measured by using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) assay, ferric thiocyanate (FTC), reducing power and thiobarbituric acid (TBA) assay methods. Here, ascorbic acid (ASA) was used as standard antioxidant. Results obtained from the study shows that all extracts of the plant have significant scavenging activity against DPPH (45.85% for acetone, 42.00% for ethanol and 37.85% for petroleum ether extracts at 2 mg/ml each). Furthermore, the three extracts of E. conyzoides also demonstrated significant antioxidant activity in other in vitro assays with the acetone extract being the most active. Hence the present antioxidant studies of E. conyzoides, will be beneficial in the synthesis/ preparation of new drugs of pharmaceutical importance, especially its acetone extract.