ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF WATER SOLUBLE ANTIOXIDANTS COMPONENTS FROM BLACK CUMIN (Nigella sativa) AND SWALLOW ROOT (Decalepis hamiltonii)

Vulli Venkata Rao*, Vempati Poornodai, Nancy Bonareri Mitaki and Suberu Safiu Adewale

ABSTRACT

Spices are known for good antioxidant potency and they have been implicated against varieties of biological disorders. However majority of the studies have reported the presence of lipid soluble antioxidant. In human diseases major diseases including cancer are initiated by oxidative stress and oxidative stress mediated membrane damage, cellular/DNA damage, tissue damage etc. For efficient quenching of these oxidative stress induced damage in cells and molecules, both water soluble and lipid soluble antioxidants are essential. Current study thus focuses on the identification of any newer water soluble antioxidants and their potency in selected spices-black cumin (Nigella sativa) and swallow root (Decalepis hamiltonii). Results from this study shows that aqueous extracts of Black cumin – BCAE and Swallow root – SRAE showed multi-potent antioxidant properties including free radical scavenging, reducing power, inhibition of lipid peroxidation and cyto/DNA protectivity. BCAE and SRAE showed 1.9-2.5 fold increase in antioxidant potency as evaluated by free radical scavenging effect than their respective solvent (methanol) extracts – BCME and SRME.

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