Studies on antioxidant activities of breviscapine in the cell-free system.

Breviscapine is a commercially produced plant extract from the Chinese herb Erigeron breviscapus. (Vant.) Hand.-Mazz., which contains 2 main flavonoids. It is widely used in clinic to treat ischemic diseases in which free radicals are considered to be the main causal factor. Our study is aimed to examine the antioxidant activity of this extract. The following assays were employed: 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging, superoxide anion radical scavenging, nitric oxide radical scavenging, total anti-oxidative capacity, and antilipid peroxidation assays. Breviscapine was demonstrated to show an effective activity on scavenging DPPH, superoxide anion radicals and nitric oxide. The total antioxidative capacity of breviscapine (7.8 microg/ml to 250 microg/ml) was 1.22 to 6.74 FRAP value (x 10(-5) mmol). At the highest concentration of breviscapine, the inhibition extent of lipid peroxidation induced by Fe(2+) in rat liver homogenates was 38.5%. Because of the antioxidant activity, the present study is therefore designed to investigate the therapeutic potential of breviscapine for treatment of ischemic diseases.