Chemical composition and antioxidant activities of the essential oil and methanol extracts of Psammogeton canescens.

This study is outlined to probe the chemical composition of essential oil and in vitro antioxidant activity of the essential oil and methanol extracts of Psammogeton canescens. The chemical composition of the hydrodistilled essential oil of the aerial parts of P. canescens was analyzed by GC and GC/MS. The main constituents of the oil were found to be beta-bisabolene (33.35%), apiole (28.34%), alpha-pinene (11.86%) and dill apiole (8.17%). Antioxidant activities of the samples were determined by three various testing systems namely DPPH, beta-carotene/linoleic acid, and reducing power assay. In DPPH system, the highest radical-scavenging activity was seen by the polar subfraction of methanol extract (49.5+/-1.21mug/ml). Furthermore, in the second case the inhibition capacity (%) of the polar subfraction (92.40%+/-0.72) found to be the stronger one. However, in the reducing power assay, a reverse activity pattern more than in the first two systems was observed, and the essential oil was stronger radical reducer than was the methanol extract in all of the concentration tested. Our findings demonstrate that the essential oil and methanol extracts of P. canescens possess significant antioxidant activities and may be suggested as a new potential source of natural antioxidant. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.