A comparative study of echinacoside, oleuropein content and antioxidant properties of different solvent extracts from Syringa pubescens Turcz.

ABSTRACT

Syringa pubescens Turcz is commonly used folk medicinal herb in west of Henan Province of China. In this work, water and various concentration of methanol, ethanol and acetone in water were used as solvent to extract echinacoside and oleuropein from S. pubescens. The antioxidant properties of different extracts were evaluated using various in vitro assays. The highest yields of echinacoside and oleuropein were obtained by using the 60% aqueous methanol and 80% aqueous ethanol, respectively. The extracts of water, aqueous ethanol or methanol showed strong antioxidant abilities. Furthermore, the high correlation between echinacoside content and antioxidant properties was found. The contribution of oleuropein content was not significant to antioxidant abilities. These findings indicate that S. pubescens can be used as a new natural antioxidant resource.