1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), a stable radical and investigated as reactive hydrogen acceptor, has been widely used for studying antioxidant properties of bioactive compounds isolated from the plant extracts. This paper investigates the DPPH radical scavenging activity of the leaf extract of Physalis minima Linn., which is expressed as percentage inhibition of DPPH free radical, using standard reference compounds—Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), Butylated hydroxy anisole (BHA) and Gallic acid. It was found that 50 mg/ml and 100 mg/ml of the extracts lowered the radical level to 57% and 80%, respectively. As 50% and above reduction of DPPH radical is considered significant, it suggests the scavenging capabilities of different components of the extract used in the present study. This further suggests that the different components of the extracts are good hydrogen donors but the concentration of the extract that resulted in 50% and above inhibition of DPPH radicals was found to be high as compared to the standard reference compound used. This might be due to the crude ethanol extract of leaves of Physalis minima Linn.

used in the study. From the present findings it may be concluded that the radical scavenging activity is present only in a few components of the leaf extract of Physalis minima Linn. Hence, there is a need to purify and characterize the individual components present in the leaf extract responsible for the scavenging activity of DPPH radical. Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) are constantly generated for specific metabolic requirement during different cellular processes (Bagul et al., 2005). It includes highly reactive superoxide radicals—hydrogen peroxide and hydroxyl free radicals—all of which have one or more unpaired electrons (Thiraviam et al., 2005).

These radical species are highly toxic, mutagenic and reactive, and can nick the DNA, damage essential enzymes and proteins or provoke uncontrolled lipid peroxidation and auto-oxidation reaction (Halliwell, 1994 ; and Thiraviam et al., 2005). It has been reported that cancer, emphysema cirrhosis, arteriosclerosis and arthritis have a correlation with oxidative damage induced by ROS (Kale and Sitasawad, 1990; Halliwell, 1994; and Bandhopadhyay et al., 1999). Approximately, 90% of the age-related degenerative diseases are linked with activated Oxygen (Tominaga et al., 2005).

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