COMPARATIVE FREE-RADICAL SCAVENGING OF CRUDE EXTRACTS AND VARIOUS FRACTIONS OF ERUCA SATIVA

Abstract

The present study investigates the antioxidant potential of crude extracts and solvent fractions of Eruca sativa (rocket or arugula), a leafy vegetable belonging to the family Brassicaceae. The plant was successively extracted with solvents of increasing polarity, hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, methanol, and butanol to determine their comparative antioxidant activity using the DPPH free radical scavenging assay. The findings indicated that there was a proportional increase in antioxidant activity with the solvent polarity with the best effects of butanol and methanol fraction. The butanol fraction had 85.66 + -1.31% and the methanol fraction had 79.66 + -1.73% scavenging activity in 100 -mL of solution as compared to the standard ascorbic acid (95.24 + -0.64%). Polar fractions showed high activity indicating that the phenolic and flavonoid compounds are the chief contributors. The results also identify E. sativa as a useful source of natural antioxidant that can be utilized in nutraceutical and pharmaceutical products to prevent the occurrence of oxidative stress-related conditions