Middha Anil and Dr. Purohit Suresh
Earlier investigations have shown that there are a number of plants which shows an antioxidant activity due to the presence of flavonoids and other polyphenolic compounds. Since Chyawanprash is made with such type of plants or their parts so manufacturer has claimed their antiaging effects by , inhibiting the formation of free radicals in body. In the present work the free radical scavenging activity of ethyl acetate, methanolic and aqueous extracts of different brand of Chyawanprash were evaluated spectrophotometrically by in vitro DPPH (1, 1- diphenyl, 2-picryl hydrazyl) assay at 516nm.The absorbance decreases when the radical is reduced by antioxidants. As results indicates that ethyl acetate extract of all samples exhibited higher level of scavenging activity i.e. close to ascorbic acid (IC50 20.693 µg/ml) as compared to its methanolic and aqueous extracts. Free radical scavenging activity of aqueous extracts of all brands is comparable and close to each other that is indicative that these brands are likely to exhibit similar free radical activity.
