Antioxidant Capacity Connection with Phenolic and Flavonoid Content in Chinese Medicinal Herbs Mengfei Li, Paul W. Pare, Jinlin Zhang, Tianlan Kang, Zhen Zhang, Delong Yang, Kepeng Wang and Hua Xing Gansu Provincial Key Lab of Aridland Crop Science / College of Life Science and Technology, Gansu Agricultural University, 730070 Lanzhou, P.R. China Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, 79409 Texas, USA College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, 730000 Lanzhou, P.R. China Station of Industrial Crop Promotion of Gansu province, 730000 Lanzhou, P.R. China Abstract: Traditional Chinese herbal medicines (TCHMs) have been used to treat diseases for thousands of years because of high therapeutic performance and low toxicity. To mine for new natural sources of antioxidants, 93 TCHMs were screened for activity, based on classical antioxidant capacity assays. Substantial d ifference s in antioxidant capacity were coupled with phenolic and flavonoid content for each of the examined species. Species that exhibited both high antioxidant capacity and specialized-phytochemical content included: Angelica dahurica ,Atractylodes macrocephala , Paeonia lactiflora , Paeonia suffruticosa and Perilla frutescens . These species have been identified as promising sources for natural antioxidants. Keywords: Traditional Chinese herbal medicines; antioxidant capacity; total phenolic and flavonoid content . © 2018 ACG Publications. All rights reserved. |