African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 5 (23), pp. 2388-2396, 4 December 2006   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2006 Academic Journals        

Full Length Research Paper

Antioxidant activity of extracts from Acanthopanax senticosus

Hae-Ryong Park¹, Eunju Park², A-Ram Rim¹, Kyung-Im Jeon², Ji-Hwan Hwang¹, and Seung-Cheol Lee¹*

¹Department of Food Science and Biotechnology, Kyungnam University, Masan 631-701, Korea.

²Department of Food and Nutrition, Kyungnam University, Masan 631-701, Korea.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: sclee@kyungnam.ac.kr.  Phone: +82-55-249-2684.

Fax: 82-55-249-2995.

Accepted 19 October, 2006

Antioxidants play an important role in inhibiting and scavenging radicals, thus providing protection to humans against infectious and degenerative diseases. Literature shows that the antioxidant activity is high in medicinal plants. Realizing the fact that, this study was carried out to determine the antioxidant activity of water extract of Acanthopanax senticosus. Water extract (0.5 g/50 ml) of A. senticosus (ASE) were prepared and total phenol contents (TPC) and radical scavenging activity (RSA) of the extracts was determined for antioxidant activity. The TPC and RSA of ASE were 366.67 μM and 67.67%, respectively. In addition, the effect of ASE on DNA damage induced by H₂O₂ in human lymphocytes was also evaluated by Comet assay. The ASE showed strong inhibitory effect as its concentration increased from 0.125 to 1% by 65 to 81% against DNA damage induced by 200 μM of H₂O₂. These results suggest that water extract of commercial dried A. senticosus for tea showed significant antioxidant activity and protective effect against oxidative DNA damage.

Key words: Acanthopanax senticosus, antioxidant, total phenol contents, DPPH, DNA damage, comet assay.