Comparison of the Total Phenol, Flavonoid Contents and Antioxidant Activity of Methanolic Extracts of Artemisia spicigera and A. splendens Growing in Iran

The present study is designed to evaluate the radical scavenging activity, total phenol content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) of the MeOH extracts and their solid phase extraction fractions of A. spicigera and A. splendens. The antioxidant activity of the extracts and fractions were examined by DPPH method. Total phenol and total flavonoid quantities of the samples were determined spectrophotometrically using Folin-Ciocalteu and AlCl3 reagents respectively. The 40% MeOH-water fractions in both plants exhibited the highest degree of free radical scavenging property (RC50 0.0094 ± 0.002, 0.0121 ± 0.003 mg/ml for A. splendens and A. spicigera, respectively) compared to that of the positive control quercetine 0.0039 mg/ml. As assumed, the amount of total phenolics was very high in 40% MeOH-water fractions (33.69 ± 1.49, 36.67 ± 2.26 mg GAE /100 g of dry extract of A. spicigera and A. splendens, respectively) and also this fraction has been found to be rich in flavonoids (96.41 ± 8.74, 129.80 ± 7.76 mg rutinoside per 100 g dry extract of A. spicigera and A. splendens, respectively). A positive result observed between the free radical scavenging activity potential and total phenol and flavonoid levels of samples.