Antioxidant Activity of Some Common Medicinal Plants

Abstract

The present study is aimed at evaluating antioxidant effect of six traditionally used medicinally useful plants.In recent days there is an increased intrest for exploring plants containing powerful antioxidant activity.Plants have become an important source of a good amount of antioxidants that prevent oxidative stress caused by free radicals. Here an attempt is made to evaluate invitro antioxidant activity of six traditionally used plants by using three different methods. The activity was found to increase in a dose dependent manner for all the extracts. Natural compounds especially those that are derived from medicinal plants provide a large number of antioxidants useful for humans . The extracts of Ficus bengalensis, Hemidesmus indica, Sida retusa,,Ixora coccenia,Green tea and Terminalia chebula were screened invitro for their antioxidant activity. These plants have a wide use in traditional system of medicine. Soan attempt was made to evaluate their antioxidant activity.