Abstract: DPPH radical scavenging assay was used to evaluate the antioxidant activities of ethanol extracts from twenty edible spices, and the results showed that most of them had antioxidant effect and Zanthoxylum bungeanum was the strongest antioxidant among them, followed by clove, cinnamon, bay leaf and lesser galangal. Meanwhile, the contents of total flavonoids and total phenols in twenty spices were determined by aluminium chloride and Folin-Ciocalteu colorimetric assays, respectively, and their correlations with DPPH radical scavenging effect were analyzed. It was found that DPPH radical scavenging effect was correlated with the contents of total flavonoids or total phenols, especially with the content of total flavonoids (R2 = 0.8111). Furthermore, Zanthoxylum bungeanum was found to contain the highest amount of total flavonoids among twenty spices. Hence, the spice is expected to be exploited as a new source of antioxidant.

Key words: edible spicy herbs, antioxidant capacity, flavonoid, phenol