Antioxidant Activity Of Selected Edible Cucurbitaceous Fruit Peels
Keywords:
Antioxidant, Cucumis sativus, Citrullus lanatus, Cucumis melo, CucurbitaceaeAbstract
Background: Peels of some edible fruits are regarded as waste and discarded.This study evaluated antioxidant activity of peels of selectedcucurbitaceous fruits viz Cucumis melo Linn. var. inodorus(CM), Cucumis sativus Linn. (CS) and Citrullus lanatus(Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai (CL) using standard in-vitro assays. The study also evaluated total flavonoid and phenolic contents of the extracts as a measure of their antioxidant activity.
Methods: Oven dried peelswere ground and then extracted with hydro-ethanol. Phytochemical screening for the presence of alkaloids, anthraquinones, terpenoids and other metabolites was carried out. In-vitro antioxidant activity of extracts was evaluated via hydrogen peroxide scavenging (HP), metal chelating (MC), ferric ion reducing (RC) capacity and z,z-Diphenyl-i-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging assay methods.Total phenolic content and total flavonoid contents were also
quantified.
Results: Cucumissativus extract showed significant metal chelating activity (p<0.05). Citrullus lanatus had significant metal chelating activity (p ≤ 0.05) at highest concentration of o.1mg/ml with a higher peak activity 54.47% when compared with the standard, Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) 52.61%. Cucumis sativus at highest concentration (12.43% inhibition) showed significant Hydrogen peroxide radical scavenging activity (p ≤ 0.05) Low concentrations in three of the assays
(HP, DPPH and RC), showed inferior activity (p ≤ 0.05).Antioxidantactivity increased as extract concentration increased.
Phytochemical screening revealed presence of tannins, flavonoids, terpenoids and sugars. Citrullus lanatus showed presence of deoxysugars. The results showed that Cucumis melo had the highest phenolic contents while Cucumis sativus had the highest total flavonoids.
Conclusion: The peel extracts exhibited significant metal chelating and hydrogen peroxide radical
scavenging activity which showed they possess good antioxidant activity.
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