Full Length Research Paper

Antioxidant studies on the ethanolic extract of Commiphora spp.

V. Sudarshana Deepa¹, P. Suresh Kumar¹*, S. Latha², P. Selvamani² and S. Srinivasan¹

¹Department of Biotechnology, Anna University, Tiruchirappalli-20024, Tamil Nadu, India.

²Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Anna University, Tiruchirappalli-620024, Tamil Nadu, India.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: sureshbiotech2003@yahoo.co.in. Tel: +919786075353. Fax: 0431-2407333.

Accepted 9 February, 2009

This investigation elucidated the presence of phytochemical constituents and in vitro free radicals scavenging activity for nitric oxide, total reducing power, superoxide, lipid peroxidation and DPPH in the ethanolic leaves extract of Commiphora species; Commiphora caudata (CC) and Commiphora var pubescens (CP). The IC₅₀ values of both the species were comparable to standard drugs, Quercitin (nitric oxide), vitamin C (superoxide), vitamin E (lipid peroxidation), vitamin C (DPPH). The results were analyzed statistically by regression analysis. In all the in vitro assays, the ethanolic extracts of the leaves showed its ability to scavenge free radicals in a dose dependent manner. However our study revealed that CC has potent antioxidant activity better than CP. Further investigation on the isolation, identification of antioxidant components in these plants may lead to chemical entities with the potential for clinical use and evalution of in vivo antioxidant activity.

Key words: Commiphora caudata, Commiphora var pubescens, radical scavenging activity.