Abstract

The antioxidant potential of the crude ethanolic (CCE), hexane (HF), chloroform (CLF), ethyl acetate (EAF) and remaining extracts (RF), from the leaves of Ocotea pulchella, was verified using seven antioxidant assays: DPPH (2.2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl), phosphomolybdenum complex, reducing power (prussian blue), lipid peroxidation (TBARs- thiobarbituric acid reactive substances), deoxyribose oxidation and H₂O₂ scavenging. The obtained results showed that the EAF was more active in the DPPH, phospho-molybdenum, lipid peroxidation, deoxyribose oxidation and H₂O₂ scavenging methods; and the CLF showed to be more active in the reduction potential method. The hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA) analysis demonstrated that DPPH is the method which requires less extract and fractions concentrations to show antioxidant potential and that deoxyribose oxidation and H₂O₂ scavenging showed a relative antioxidant activity when compared to other methods. The reduction potential and phosphomolybdenum complex showed less antioxidant potential. The cluster analysis also shows that the EAF possesses an antioxidant activity similar to the tested standards. These results indicate that the EAF may contain promising antioxidant agents that can also be useful for the treatment of diseases caused by free radicals.

Key words: free radicals, antioxidant assays, PCA, HCA.