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In vitro Antioxidant Activity between Bioactive Compounds from Nine Species of Passiflora

Abstract

Main bioactive substances identified from the genus Passiflora include polyphenols, flavonoids, carotenoids, anthocyanins and other natural antioxidants that are critical factors for maintaining optimum health. Polyphenols mainly C-glycosides are present in well studied species such as P. edulis, P. incarnata and P. alata. However, most Passiflora species remains little explored and it’s for this reason that we address our work at the comparison between species. Three experiments with completely randomized designs were performed in order to compare the total amount of flavonoids, phenols and in vitro free radical DPPH scavenger activity (%DPPH) of nine species of Passiflora (P. edulis, P. alata, P. incarnata, P. ligularis, P. tripartite, P. coccinea, P. gardneri, P. laurifólia and P. mucronata). Non parametric Kruskal-Wallis and Friedman tests (for flavonoids), parametric analyses of variances (Anova) and the last significant differences (LSD) tests (for phenols and free radical scavenger activity) were performed to compare the studied species and then a correlation analysis was carried out to assess the interaction between the variables using RStudio statistical software. Results showed significant differences between the studied passionflowers for the total amount of flavonoids (p=4.4e-5), total amount of phenols (p=2.2e-16) and scavenger activity of the free radical DPPH (p=2.2e-16). Also, we found a positive correlation between %DPPH scavenging activity and the total content of polyphenols (Pearson’s coefficient=0.706) and a negative one between flavonoid (Pearson’s coefficient=-0.485). The results suggest that in passionflower leaf samples the scavenging activity of the free radical DPPH is more related with polyphenols rather than flavonoids.

DAV Montero, LC Ming, MG Borguini, M Cavalcante, GPP Lima, S Fabian and LMM Meletti

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