Natural Drugs: Antioxidant Activity and DNA protecting potentials

Antioxidants present in natural sources helps to scavenge free radicals and thus, provide health benefits. The study report the in vitro radical scavenging capacity of methanol and aqueous extracts of Dissotis rotundifolia whole plant. The main objective for this research was to use standard procedures to determine phenolic content, nitric oxide scavenging activity, hydroxyl radical scavenging activity, DPPH-scavenging activity, antimicrobial properties and DNA damage protecting activity to evaluate the antioxidant potential of various extracts. Concentrations of plant extracts ranging from 0.02 to 0.10 mg/ml were prepared and mixed with appropriate volumes of reagents and the respective absorbances read at the respective wavelength. The antimicrobial properties of the sample was determined using agar disc diffusion test. The extracts inhibited the growth of staphylococcus aureus and E-coli for both days. The results of this study indicate that extracts of D. rotundifolia whole plant contain a variety of phytochemical compounds that can competently protect the body against oxidative stress caused by free radicals and might therefore be used as a source of potent natural antioxidant