Antioxidant and antigenotoxic activities of Globularia alypum leaves extracts

Since ancient times, traditional medicine has used plant extracts for the treatment of diseases and there has been recent interest in the chemopreventive properties of compounds derived from plants. In the present study, we investigated the antioxidant potentials of extracts of Globularia alypum leaves with the Ferric Reducing/Antioxidant Power (FRAP) and Reducing Power (RP) assays and we evaluated their effects on the genotoxic of nifuroxazide (NF) in the SOS Chromotest. Aqueous, petroleum ether, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts were prepared from powdered G. alypum leaves, and characterized qualitatively for the presence of tannins, flavonoids, coumarins and sterols. Our results showed significant antioxidant capacity by the FRAP and RP methods. Aqueous extract showed the highest antioxidant capacity with a value of 8.9 mM TE 4.5 mM TE by FRAP and the reducing power method respectively. All the extracts significantly decreased the genotoxicity induced by10 µg of NF (_S9).The maximum inhibitory effect towards NF induced genotoxicity by the tested G. alypum extracts was obtained in the presence of Escherichia coli PQ37 strain at a dose of 250 µg/assay of the aqueous extract (99.95%). Our results show that extracts of G. alypum leaves are a significant source of compounds with antigenotoxic and antioxidant activity and thus may be useful for chemoprevention.   Key words: Globularia alypum, SOS chromotest; antigenotoxic effect, antioxidative activity.