Antioxidant Potential of Opuntia ficus Fruit Extracts
Author(s): Ashok K*, Babu M, Kalaiarasi V, Muthukumaravel A and Padmapriya G
Abstract
The DPPH results indicate that methanol extract showed more antioxidant potential than the other solvent extract. Antioxidant activity of Opuntia ficus fruit extract found to be in the following order of Methanol extract (66.20 μg/ml) ?chloroform extract (68.085 μg/ml) ?ethyl acetate (75.468 μg/ml) ?Aqueous extract (127.88 μg/ml) ?Hexane (250.078 μg/ml). There were significance differences (P<0.05) among the extracts and the standard Ascorbic acid at different concentration (μg/ml) this may be due to the radical scavenging of the extracts and the antioxidant mechanism might have involved in it. The DPPH assay indicated that the methanol extract has the ability to scavenge free radicals and the capacity to decolorize DPPH the controls. This can, as well, be attributed to the presence of polyphenolic compounds.