Sambucus ebulus elburensis fruits: A good source for antioxidants

The antioxidant activity of methanol and aqueous extract of Sambucus Ebulus (SE) was examined employing various in vitro assay systems, i.e. DPPH and nitric oxide radical scavenging, reducing power, linoleic acid and iron ion chelating power. IC₅₀ for DPPH radical-scavenging activity was 202.50 ± 1.38 for aqueous extract (SW) and 723.62 ± 3.36 μg ml^-1 for methanol extract (SM). Reducing powers of all the extracts also increased with the increase of their concentrations. Both of them exhibited a weak reducing power at 25-800 μg ml^-1. The SW extract had shown better reducing power than SM. Tested extracts exhibited week Fe²⁺ chelating ability. Both extracts exhibited high antioxidant activity. There were no significant differences between them in peroxidation inhibition. SW extracts manifested better pattern of activity than Vitamin C and BHA at different incubation times. SE fruit extracts exhibited different levels of antioxidant activity in all the models studied. The SE extracts had good reductive capability for anti-lipid peroxidation and nitric oxide-scavenging activity. Aqueous extract had higher total phenol and flavonoid contents than methanol extract.