Introduction: Free radicals and reactive oxygen species are compounds usually present in healthy organisms as natural products of many metabolic pathways, and they are important in cell signaling and homeostasis. As a source of reactive oxygen species one can mention phagocytic cells and enzymes such as xanthine oxidase. Sometimes the level of reactive oxygen species strongly increases. This may lead to damage of very important cell structures such as nucleic acids, proteins or lipids. In this situation one should provide the organism with powerful antioxidants as a medicine or in the diet. A rich source of strong antioxidants such as phenolic compounds is plant raw materials, which are the subject of our study.
Material/methods: Antiradical potential of extracts was measured with DPPH radical (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) and was expressed as the number of units per mg of extracts (TAU(515/mg)) and per g of raw material (TAU(515/g)). The amount of phenolic compounds was determined colorimetrically using Folin-Ciocalteu phenol reagent (3H₂O • P₂O5 • 13WO₃ • 5MoO₃ • 10H₂O).
Results: The strongest antiradical activity was noted for extracts obtained from Cinnamomi cortex; the number of antiradical units per mg of extract (TAU(515/mg)) was 10.31±1.052. The lowest antiradical features were exhibited by extract from Zingiberis rhizoma (0.28±0.174) and extract from Cichorii radix (0.38±0.669). The highest amount of phenolic compounds was measured for extracts from Bistortae rhizoma, with a value (in percentage) of 78.6±13.5. The correlation coefficient between the number of antiradical units in extracts and amount of phenolic compounds in these extracts was 0.7273. When the number of antiradical units was calculated per g of raw material (TAU(515/g)) the strongest antiradical properties were noted for Bistortae rhizoma (1406±274.9), the weakest for Cichorii radix (122±158.3).