Study On Antioxidant Activity Of Hawthorn Extract

Hawthorn is a kind of Rosaceae family plant widely spread in China, which combines food value and medical value together. Hawthorn contains many kinds of chemical composition with physiological activation. In this paper, the quantitative analysis of major active components, and the antioxidant ability and stability of hawthorn extract were studied.Firstly, major active components had been quantitated. The flavonoids content was 58.61%, detectived by UV-spectrophotometry using rutin as comparison sample. To quantify procyanidin B2, epicatechin and hyperin present in hawthorn extract, a HPLC method was developed. It was showed that the contents of these three compounds were 13.78%, 7.38% and 3.30%, respectively.Secondly, antioxidant property of hawthorn extract was evaluated in vitro. Compared with antiscorbic acid, the extract had strong reducing capacity, total antioxidant activity, scavenging effects on DPPH·,·OH, O₂^-·and H₂O₂. The inhibiting role on liposome peroxidation was also displayed but inferior to TBHQ.Thirdly, the antioxidantion in vivo was studied in D-galactose induced aging mice model. In medium and high doses groups, the activities of SOD in blood serum and CAT in liver showed significantly higher than those in D-galactose induced aging mice group (p<0.01). The levels of SOD and GSH-Px in liver were increased compared with the levels of model group (p<0.05).Senescence-accelerated mouse (SAM) was also reserched. After treatment with hawthorn extract, the activities of SOD, GSH-Px, CAT and TAOC in liver, brain and kidney were elevated in varying degrees. Meanwhile, the levels of MDA were descreated. Detectived by fluorescence real-time quantitative PCR, hawthorn extract also improved the mRNA expression of SOD gene in SAM liver (p<0.01).Finally, the stability of hawthorn extract was studied. It was suggested that temperature and storage time had a certain influence on the contents of major active components and the antioxidant ability. In order to guarantee that hawthorn extract has relatively high antioxidant activation, stored under 4℃of conditions.The results of experiments showed that hawthorn extract possess strong antioxidant activity in vitro and in vivo. It has great future to be developed as antioxidant functional food.