IN VITRO ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF ACHYRANTHES ASPERA LINN

Achyranthes aspera, L. a member of Amaranthaceae family, a small herb of great economic importance in developing countries because of its several industrial and medicinal values. Roots of Achyranthes aspera was successively extracted with hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate and methanol by Soxhlet extraction then concentrated to dryness in a rotary evaporator under reduced pressure at 40 ˚C. All the four fractions were screened for their antioxidant potential using various in vitro models such as total antioxidant capacity, 2, 2-Diphenyl-2-Picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity and reducing power assay at various concentrations. Total phenolic and flavonoid content were assessed by spectrophotometric methods. Among the four different fractions ethyl acetate fraction exhibited good scavenging activity and reducing power. Ethyl acetate fraction has highest total phenolic and flavonoid content (46.8 mg/g GAE) and (13.5 mg/g QE) respectively. Overall, the strong activity suggested that it could be advantageously used as a functional or nutraceutical food, to prevent oxidative-stress related diseases. Further work is in progress to characterize the antioxidant compounds in the roots of Achyranthes aspera.