Abstract

Herbs have been utilized to treat acute and chronic disorders since thousand years. Epilobium angustifolium L. (Onagraceae) is used as herbal and digestive plant all over the world. TheEpilobium extracts are reported to have analgesic, anti-microbial, antimotility, antiproliferative, antiinflammatory, antitumor and antiandrogenic activities. In the present study,  the antioxidant activity and elastase, tyrosinase, lipoxygenase inhibitor capacity of E. angustifolium L. were examined. Total phenolic and total flavonoid content, reducing power, superoxide anion radical scavenging, hydroxyl radical scavenging, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging, 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) radical scavenging activities were used to evaluate the antioxidant activities. The results were compared with natural and synthetic antioxidants. The aqueous extract of E. angustifolium exhibited strong elastase (EC₅₀= 42.72 ± 2.38 mg/ml), tyrosinase (EC₅₀= 33.03 ± 3.71 mg/ml) and lipoxygenase inhibitory activities (EC₅₀= 0.57 ± 0.06 mg/ml). The extract also showed good antioxidant activity in all antioxidant tests. According to these results, E. angustifolium may be considered as an important source for pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food manufactures due to its elastase, tyrosinase, lipoxygenase inhibitory activities and antioxidant activities.

Key words: Epilobium angustifolium L., antielastase, antityrosinase, antioxidant, activity, lipoxygenase, inhibition.