Antioxidant activity and protective effects of Uncaria rhynchophylla extracts on t-BHP-induced oxidative stress in Chang cells

Uncaria rhynchophylla (UR) is widely used as a traditional Chinese herbal medicine. However, there are few studies on antioxidant activity of UR extracts. The study was aimed at determining the antioxidant activity, the contents of polyphenol and flavonoid of UR extracts. Various assays were employed to evaluate the antioxidant property of water and ethanol extracts from the UR, compared to those of the other natural and synthetic antioxidants. UR extracts had high total phenolic contents in both the water (160 ± 2.32 mg GAE/g extracts) and ethanol extracts (190.2 ± 3.16 mg GAE/g extracts). In addition, total flavonoid contents were high in both the water extracts (154 ± 1.47 mg CE/g extracts) and ethanol extracts (184.2 ± 2.41 CE/g extracts). Specially, DPPH radical scavenging activity of ethanol extracts from UR were similar with vitamin C as a positive control. In addition, antioxidant capacity in ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) were higher than that for BHT, which was used as a positive control. The antioxidant activity of extracts from UR showed stronger activity than those of vitamin C and α-tocopherol in ferric thiocyanate (FTC) and thiobarbituric acid (TBA) methods. The ethanol extracts of UR protected on H₂O₂-induced DNA damage. In addition, cytoprotective and anti-apoptotic effect of ethanol extracts from UR was also investigated in t-BHP-induced hepatotoxicity. Therefore, these results indicate that UR extracts have antioxidant properties through its ability to enhance the cell viability, mediation of production of ROS. The UR extracts could be suitable as an antioxidant in the food industry.