In vitro antioxidant activities of five cultivars of daylily flowers from China.

Different cultivars of functional vegetables may vary in an antioxidant capacity. In this study, the antioxidant activity of methanol extracts from five cultivars of daylily flower grown in China was compared by various antioxidant assays, including total antioxidant activity, free radical scavenging, superoxide anion radical scavenging and reducing power, the various antioxidant activities were compared to standard antioxidants such as butylated hydroxyanisole and ascorbic acid. All the extracts showed strong antioxidant activity in all tested methods. Among the five cultivars, Panlonghua and Mengzihua were found to possess the highest antioxidant activity, while Xiye and Baihua were found to possess the lowest antioxidant activity. In addition, a high positive correlation between the antioxidant properties and total phenolic content was observed.