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Abstract
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Today, medicinal plants can be considered as a valuable source of antioxidant compounds, such as polyphenols, which can play an important role in absorbing and neutralizing free radicals [1]. Carum carvi L., belonging to the Apiaceae family, is one of the earliest cultivated herbs in Asia, Africa and Europe and was used traditionally in different populations for many medical complains [2]. Cuminum cyminum is another medicinal herb plant belonging to the Apiaceae family which has excellent antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal and analgesic properties. Up to our knowledge, the comparison of total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of Cuminum cyminum and Carum carvil has not been reported yet and the study on theses plants might be help to finding plants with higher antioxidant activities. Thus, the aim of this study was to compare total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of Cuminum cyminum and Carum carvil. The total phenolic contents and the antioxidant activity of the methanolic extracts were determined by Folin-Ciocalteu and the 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging assays, respectively. The results indicated that there was a significant difference in the total phenol content of Cuminum cyminum and Carum carvil, and the maximum amount of phenolic compounds obtained at methanolic extract of Carum carvil. Also, the methanolic extract of Carum carvil was found to be highly effective in scavenging DPPH radical as compared to Cuminum cyminum. This suggests that, Carum carvil is a highly effective free radical scavenger or hydrogen donor and contributes significantly to the antioxidant activity and the higher antioxidant activity of Carum carvil extract could be mainly due to the action of phenolic compounds existing in the methanolic extract studied.
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