TITLE:
In Vitro Antioxidant Properties of Phloretin—An Important Phytocompound
AUTHORS:
Tamilarasan Nithiya, Rajangam Udayakumar
KEYWORDS:
Antioxidant Activity, In Vitro, Phloretin, DPPH, Free Radicals
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Biosciences and Medicines,
Vol.4 No.1,
January
14,
2016
ABSTRACT: Reactive oxygen species [ROS] cause oxidative damage to the tissues and protection from such damages is provided by endogenous and exogenous antioxidants. Much research work has been carried out in recent years on the beneficial effect of phenolic compounds which act as natural antioxidants and help to neutralize free radicals. So, this study was aimed to evaluate the in vitro antioxidant capacity of one of the phenolic compounds phloretin. Phloretin was used at four different concentrations like 20, 40, 60 and 80 μg/ml to determine the antioxidant activity by different methods such as total antioxidant capacity, reducing power, DPPH radical scavenging, superoxide anion radical scavenging and metal chelating assays. In addition to that the ascorbic acid was used as reference compound. The results showed that the phloretin displayed potent in vitro antioxidant capacity. It was able to scavenge different in vitro free radicals in all tested concentrations. Among the different concentrations, 80 μg of phloretin has maximum activity when compared to other concentrations in all in vitro antioxidant assays. High antioxidant property and maximum protective effect of phloretin were observed in a concentration dependent manner. The results were expressed as IC50 value. The lowest IC50 value indicates the highest scavenging activity. The reducing power of the phloretin was also found in concentration dependent. According to the results of this study, we concluded that the phloretin possesses antioxidant property. Therefore, phloretin is a powerful antioxidant phytocompound which can protect biological systems against the oxidative stress. From this study, we suggest that the phloretin may be used as a dietary natural antioxidant supplement for preventing free radical related diseases.