Antioxidant Activity of Phenolic Compounds from Dendropanax dentiger (Harms) Merr.

Dendropanax dentiger (Harms) Merr. is a species of Dendropanax from Araliaceae family. It is traditionally used as a folk medicinal plant in China for a variety of diseases. Dried ethanol extract of D. dentiger was made and dissolved in distilled water and then fractioned by re-extracting with petroleum ether, ethyl acetate and n-butanol. Subsequently, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl free radical scavenging activity of these fractions and its isolated phenolic compounds was determined. It is observed that the ethyl acetate fraction exhibited the highest 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl free radical scavenging activity with an IC50 value of 53.743 +/- 0.012 mg/L. Among the isolated phenolic compounds, quercetin, luteolin, caffeic acid showed significent 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl free radical scavenging activity with IC50 values of 0.051 +/- 0.001, 0.038 +/- 0.007 and 0.057 +/- 0.020 mmol/L, respectively.