Antioxidant activity and mineral element contents of Calotropis procera from Iran: a traditional medicinal plant in Middle East

Abstract Calotropis procera is a medicinal plant used traditionally in animal and human medicine for its digestive and anti-asthmatic effects. In the present study, antioxidant activity and mineral element contents of the leaves and flowers of C. procera were determined. Different extraction methods that include ethanol, chloroform, and water extraction were used to prepare extracts from the leaves and flowers of this plant. Diphenyl picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method for antioxidant activities and flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) with microwave digestion for mineral element contents were performed. Aqueous extract of flower was the most potent radical scavenger (IC50 of 85.58 ± 9.41 μg/ml) followed by ethanol extract of flowers (IC50 of 142.95 ± 10.01 μg/ml). In addition, the antioxidant activities of all the flower extracts were significantly higher than that of the leaves (P <0.05). Also, high concentrations of K+ (196.50 ± 10.02 μg/mg) and Ca2+ (108.23 ± 5.30 μg/mg) and low concentrations of Na+, Cr2+, and Fe2+ (0.87 ± 0.04, 2.44 ± 0.17, and 2.63 ± 0.21 μg/mg, respectively) were demonstrated in the leaves of C. procera. Our results provide a support for the use of C. procera in traditional medicine and may be clarified as the cause of its beneficial effects.
Source: Comparative Clinical Pathology - Category: Pathology Source Type: research