Fenóis totais e atividade antioxidante de cinco plantas medicinais

This paper describes total phenolics content and antioxidant activity in the ethanolic extract of leaves, bark and roots of five medicinal plants: Terminalia brasiliensis Camb., Terminalia fagifolia Mart.& Zucc., Copernicia cerifera (Miller) H.E. Moore, Cenostigma macrophyllum Tul.var.acuminata Teles Freire and Qualea grandiflora Mart.The total phenolics content of the plant extracts, determined by the Folin-Ciocalteu method, varied from 250.0 ±8,2 to 763,63 ± 13.03 mg of gallic acid equivalent/g dry EtOH extract.The antioxidant activity of extracts was evaluated using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay system.Extract of bark from T. brasiliensis, the most active, with an EC 50 value of 27.59 ± 0.82 μg/mL, was comparable to rutin (EC 50 = 27.80 ± 1.38) and gallic acid (EC 50 = 24.27± 0.31), used as positive controls.The relationship between total phenolic content and antioxidant activity was positive and significant for T. brasiliensis, C. macrophyllum and C. cerifera.