Using HPLC to Determination the Composition and Antioxidant Activity of Berberis Vulgaris

The Berberis vulgaris (BV) plant has been extensively used as a traditional medicine in some part of Asian region especially in Western Asia. The BV fruits is claimed also to have anti-viral activities, and as a treatment for chronic candidiasis, indigestion and parasites. The present study was conducted to evaluate the antioxidative activity, nutritional and antinutritional composition of Berberis vulgaris fruit. The antioxidant activity was determined by using thiobarbituric acid (TBA method). Absolute ethanol, absolute methanol and aqueous solution (distilled water) were used as a solvent in this study. Result shows significantly differences (P< 0.05). The antioxidant activity of ethanol extract was the highest (27.26 ±1.07 %), followed by BHT (20.29 ±0.23 %), methanol extract (16.80 ±0.23 %), Vitamin E (6.68 ±0.25 %) and the lowest was the aqueous extract (6.53 ±0.29 %). Besides antioxidant activity, Berberis vulgaris also contains nutritional and antinutritional composition namely vitamin C, malic acid and Tannin. Vitamin C and malic acid also shows antioxidative properties. Vitamin C and malic acid also showed antioxidative properties and act synergistically to each other as antioxidants. The presence of antinutritional such as Tannin which can act as a medium to prevent nutritional composition from being absorbed by the body also has been detected. The amount of nutritional and antinutritional detected in 100g of berberry were 11102.81μg ± 2.01 of Vitamin C, 116.03μg ± 1.12 of Malic acid and 20.51μg ± 0.59 of Tannin.