Plants have served for centuries as sources of compounds useful for human health such as antioxidant, anti-diabetic and antitumor agents. They are also rich in nutrients that improve the human diet. Growing demands for these compounds make it important to seek new sources for them. Hippophae rhamnoides L. is known as a plant with health-promoting properties. In this study we investigated the chemical composition and biological properties of bioactive components of ethanol extracts from leaves and twigs of H. rhamnoides L. Chemical components such as the total content of phenolic compounds, vitamins and amino acids and the antioxidant activities of these compounds in cellular and cell-free systems were assessed. The results suggest that the studied extracts are rich in bioactive compounds with potent antioxidant properties. Cytotoxicity and hemotoxicity assays showed that the extracts had low toxicity on human cells over the range of concentrations tested. Interaction with human serum albumin was investigated and conformational changes were observed. Our results indicate that leaf and twig extracts of H. rhamnoides L. should be considered as a non-toxic source of bioactive compounds which may be of interest to the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.
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