مشخصات پژوهش

Medicinal plants have different capacities to produce natural compounds at different phonological stages. To achieve their goal, breeders must consider the proper harvest time to reach the best yield for their target purposes, such as pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic industries applications. For this reason, total phenol and flavonoid contents as well as antioxidant activity were studied in different phenological growth stages of C. spinosa. Total phenols and flavonoids of the extracts were determined using Folin- Ciocalteu and aluminum chloride methods. Also, the DPPH assay was used to predict antioxidant activities of the extracts. Statistical analysis of this experiment showed that the greatest total phenolic content was observed at the pre-flowering stage (57.33 mg GAL/g of extract), while the minimum amount was associated with the mide-mature fruit stage (fruit) (13.97 mg GAL/g of extract). The study on the flavonoid content indicated that the late-mature fruit stage (leaf) resulted in maximum flavonoid content followed by late-mature fruit stage (friut) (16.64 and 13.72 mg QE/g of extract, respectively). The antioxidant results revealed that the highest antioxidant properties were obtained in the Late-mature fruit stage (leaf) with IC50 value of 241 µg/mL, and the full-flowering stage (flower) and mide-mature fruit stage (fruit) had the lowest antioxidant activity with IC50 value of up to 1000 µg/mL. The results of the present study introduced C. spinosa as a rich source of phenolic compounds in all growing stages, and its highest value was obtained in the pre-flowering stage.