Kaushik Chaudhuri

The aim of present study was to evaluate the antioxidant activities of four different solvent extracts of four wild leafy vegetables e.g. Solanum nigrum  Phytolacca esculenta, Piper pedicellatum and Pouzolzia hirta  and fruits of Melodinus khasianus collected from Arunachal Pradesh  state in India. The extracts of the plants were examined for their antioxidant activities by using free radical 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging method, ABTS radical scavenging ability, reducing power capacity, estimation of total phenolic content, flavonoid content and flavonol content.. The result showed that the total phenolics, flavonoids and flavonols of the different extracts of the investigated samples ranged from 7.49 ±3.55 - 305.38 ±2.78 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/g dry extract, 4.13±0.02 - 171.01±0.99 mg rutin equivalent /g dry extract and 18.90±0.15 to 326.21±1.84 mg quercetin equivalent /g dry extract respectively. Furthermore the plant extracts exhibited good free radical scavenging capacity. The solvent used to extract the active constituents from plants were benzene, chloroform, acetone and methanol. The different levels of antioxidant activities were found in the solvent systems used. The results indicate that these wild edible vegetables could be utilized as natural antioxidant.