In vitro assessment of the protection from oxidative stress by various fractions of Artemisia incisa Pamp.

The methanolic extract of Artemisia incisa Pamp. was dissolved in distilled water and successively partitioned with n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and n-butanol. The antioxidant potential of all these fractions and remaining aqueous fraction was evaluated by four methods, i.e., the scavenging activity of the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH), the total antioxidant activity, the ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay and the ferric thiocyanate assay. In addition, the total phenolics was determined. The obtained results revealed that among the studied fractions the ethyl acetate soluble fraction showed the most potent DPPH-radical scavenging activity with an IC50 value of 5.3 ± 0.71 μg mL-1, which is even more effective than the standard antioxidant butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) (IC50 value 0f 12.1± 0.92 μg mL-1). The ethyl acetate fraction also showed the highest FRAP value (3677.13 ± 27.1 μg TE mL-1), inhibition of lipid peroxidation (60.93 ± 0.84 % at 500 μg mL-1) and total phenolic content (95.5 ± 0.05 μg GAE g-1) as compared to other fractions. However, the remaining aqueous fraction was found to posses the highest antioxidant activity of all the fractions