Planta Med 2011; 77 - PM185
DOI: 10.1055/s-0031-1282943

Radical scavenging effects of fruit extracts from two Ficus species

S Ngom 1, L Breant 1, CV Sénéchau 1, A Leick 1, MS Mbaye 2, D Diop 2, K Noba 2, A Lobstein 1
  • 1Laboratory of Pharmacognosy, UMR-CNRS 7200, Faculty of Pharmacy, 67400 Illkirch, France
  • 2Laboratory of Botanic and Biodiversity, Department of Plant Biology, Faculty of Sciences, BP 5005, Dakar-Fann, Senegal

Ficus gnaphalocarpa L. and Ficus dekdekena (Miq.) A.Rich. belong to the well-known plants of Moraceae family growing in tropical regions. Their fruits are traditionally used as dietary wild fruits in West africa [1].

The aim of our study was to evaluate the in vitro radical scavenging activities (RSA) of these Ficus fruits hydroalcoholic extracts, using two different free radicals: hydroxyl radical (HO·) and superoxide anion (O2·–).

At doses of 100 and 25µg.mL-1 the percentage of inhibition of O2·–values obtained for extracts were 61,41 and 24,02 for F. dekdekena, 23,3 and 31,77 for F. gnaphalocarpa respectively. At 10 and 2µg.mL-1 the percentage of inhibition of OH· values obtained for extracts were 88,37 and 52,51 for F. dekdekena, 87,09 and 50,28 for F. gnaphalocarpa, respectively

Preliminary phytochemical investigation of the fruit extracts using HPLC-DAD and LC-MS showed the presence of protocatechuic acid, chlorogenic acid, ferulic acid, homo-orientin, rutin, hyperoside, catechin, epicatechin and other catechin derivatives well known as radical scavenging compounds [2].

These results suggest that F. dekdekena and F. gnaphalocarpa fruits possess radical scavenging activity, wich could be attributed to the presence of phenolic compounds.

Keywords: Ficus, hydroxyl radical, superoxide anion, phenolic compounds

References: 1. Lockett et al. (2000)J Food Sci Nutr 51(3): 195–208. 2. Nanjo F et al. (1999) Biosci Biotechnol Biochem 63(9):1621–1623