Abstract:

To assess the in vitro antioxidant activity of a triterpenoidal saponin from Ganoderma lucidum, named GCTL1, GCTL1 was tested for its abilities to scavenge superoxide anion, hydroxyl, DPPH and hydroxyl peroxide free radicals, reducing power and ferric-chelating capacity and was compared with BHT and vitamin C, synthetic antioxidants. GCTL1 had interesting antioxidant effect. The IC50 values for scavenging superoxide anion, hydroxyl, DPPH and hydroxyl peroxide were (0.247 ±0.05), (0.197 ± 0.002), (0.09 ± 0.02) mg/mL and (0.279 ± 0.04) mg/mL, respectively, and the concentrations for achieving 0.5 reducing power and 50% ferric-chelating capacity were (0.425 ± 0.01) mg/mL and (0.180 ± 0.04) mg/mL. All these antioxidant properties were dependent on concentration varying in a certain range. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that GCTL1 is better antioxidant than BHT and vitamin C.

Key words: Ganoderma lucidum, triterpenoidal saponins, antioxidant activity, scavenging activity