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Pak. J. Bot., 45(SI): 231-234, 2013.

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ANTIOXIDANT POTENTIAL OF ROOT BARK OF BERBERIS LYCIUM ROYLE. FROM GALLIYAT, WESTERN HIMALAYA, PAKISTAN

ZIA-UR-REHMAN MASHWANI*^1,2, MIR AJAB KHAN², SADIA IRUM¹ AND MUSHTAQ AHMAD²

Abstract: This study was to compare the relative level of antioxidant activity of methanolic extract of root bark of  Berberis lycium Royle., in different  test systems of antioxidant determination i.e ABTS (2,2’-azinobis-(3-ethyl-benzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) radical cation assay,  Phosphomolybdenum assay and reducing power  assay. In all these assays the antioxidant activity of extract was compared to that of ascorbic acid. The antioxidant activity was highest in phosphomolybdenum assay followed by ABTS and reducing power assay respectively. In phosphomolybdenum assay extract showed maximum antioxidant activity of 84.55% and ascorbic acid showed 86.99% while in ABTS assay extract showed maximum antioxidant activity of 62.15% and ascorbic acid showed 88.3%. In reducing power assay increased concentration of sample and standard resulted in more reduction of ferric cyanide complex to ferrous form, thus showed increased antioxidant activity at higher concentration. In ABTS assay influences of both the concentration of antioxidant and duration of reaction on the inhibition of the radical cation absorption were taken into account when determining the antioxidant activity.  On the basis of these results Berberis lycium is identified as a best source of free radical scavenging compounds.

¹Department of Botany, PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

²Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

*Corresponding authors e-mail: zia.botany@gmail.com, mashwani@uaar.edu.pk