Antioxidant activities of the selected plants from the family Euphorbiaceae, Lauraceae, Malvaceae and Balsaminaceae

Extraction of nine plants selected from the family Euphorbiaceae, Lauraceae, Malvaceae and Balsaminaceae was done in petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol/n-butanol in order of increasing polarity using soxhlet apparatus. Total phenolic contents were determined with Folin- Ciocalteu reagent which ranged from 30.5 to 547.0 mg GAE/g of extract. Maximum phenolic contents were found in n-butanol extract of Ricinus communis. Antioxidant activities of these extracts were evaluated through DPPH• radical scavenging, phosphomolybdate and ferric thiocyanate (FTC) methods. Methanolic extract of Cinnamomum zeylanicum and Cinnamomum tamala showed highest antiradical (96.8%) and phosphomolybdate (1.131) activity, respectively, while ethyl acetate extract of R. communis exhibited maximum lipid per-oxidation (FTC) activity (79.3%). IC50 value of chloroform extract of C. tamala (2.2 g/ml) was less than gallic acid (4.4 g/ml), while ethyl acetate and methanol extracts of Abutilon bidentatum, Impatiens bicolor and Impatiens edgeworthii exhibited the IC50 values in the range of 10.0 - 20.0 g/ml