Abstract:

In order to study the antioxidant activity of natural anthocyanins, anthocyanins were firstly extracted from several varieties of plants with 0.1% HCl in 95% ethanol solution, then DPPH, hydroxyl and superoxide anion radical systems were used to investigate their antioxidant activities in vitro, and finally the antioxidative activities of these anthocyanins were compared by their values of IC50. The results indicated that anthocyanins from litchi peel, papermulberry fruit and mulberry fruit have the strongest scavenging capacity to DPPH, hydroxyl and superoxide anion radicals, respectively. Moreover, all these anthocyanins from plants show different scavenging effects to different radicals.

Key words: anthocyanins, free radical, antioxidant activity