Free Radical Scavenging Activity of Cassia spectabilis and Cassia fi stula

Abstract

A selection of medicinal plants Cassia spectabilis and Cassia fi stula, collected from Penang Island (Malaysia) was screened for their in vitro antioxidant activity. Different parts (leaves, fl owers, stem and pod) of selected plants were dried at room temperature and powdered. Then, the extractions were performed with methanol. The extracts than qualitatively screened for their free radical scavenging activity by employing DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical) scavenging assays. It was shown that all the methanol extracts of the samples collected were endowed with antioxidant activity, though, as expected, their potency varied according to the different parts. In particular, plants of the Cassia fi stula displayed the highest activity and the fl ower parts of Cassia fi stula exhibited the higher antioxidant activity (75.15% at 1.0 mg/ml). In this study, both plants Cassia spectabilis and Cassia fi stula were identifi ed as potentially novel sources of free radical scavenging compounds.