Effect of Aucklandia lappa Decne Extract on Antioxidant

In the present study, we investigated the antioxidant activity of Aucklandia lappa Decne (AL). Cell viability was measured in an MTT assay. Antioxidant effects were evaluated based on total polyphenol/flavonoid contents, ABTS radical scavenging activity, DPPH radical scavenging activity, SOD activity, and ROS content. AL was found not to be toxic at concentrations of 1 μg/mL, 10 μ g/mL, and 100 μg/mL, respectively. The phenolic content was higher in AL-D than in AL-E, while the flavonoid content was higher in AL-E than in AL-D. AL-E exhibited higher ABTS radical scavenging activity than AL-D, and the EC 50 values for BHA were 217.1 μg/mL in AL-D and 180.5 μg/mL in AL-E. AL-E also showed the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity. EC 50 values for BHA were 114.2 μg/mL in AL-D and 95.8 μg/mL in AL-E. The SOD-like activity of AL-E was higher than that of AL-D. The EC 50 values for ascorbic acid were 48.5 μg/mL in AL-D and 72.9 μ g/mL in AL-E, indicating that both AL extracts have a SOD activity higher than that of ascorbic acid. AL-E reduced relatively more ROS than AL-D. With 100 μg/mL AL-E, the reduction level was almost similar to that of dexamethasone. Our results demonstrate that AL have antioxidant effects, and we believe that they could be very valuable as raw materials for anti-aging products, based on their antioxidant activity.