Antioxidant activity of Osbeckia aspera

Plants of the Osbeckia family have been shown to possess hepatoprotective properties, which could be due to the presence of antioxidant compounds. The plant extract was shown to inhibit significantly in a dose-dependent manner, the activities of the DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) free radical (EC₅₀ of 27.5 μg/mL), xanthine oxidase (EC₅₀ of 1.16 mg/mL) and demonstrate a scavenging effect on hydroxyl radical mediated damage to deoxyribose (EC₅₀ of 140 μg/mL). The plant extract possessed some prooxidant activity from the effect on bleomycin-induced DNA damage, but this was less than that shown by comparable concentrations of (+)-catechin or silymarin. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.