A Comparitive Study of In-vitro Antioxidant Activity of Different Extracts of Areca Seed Collected from Areca Catechu Plant Grown in Assam

Plant polyphenolic compounds have been recognised for their ability to prevent oxidation of susceptible substances by virtue of their electron donating property due to presence of large number of phenolic hydroxyl groups. The seed of Areca catechu contains higher proportions of polyphenolic compounds mainly tannins. Our objective involves quantification of tannins, determination of total phenolic content and evaluation of oxidative potential of different extracts obtained from the seed. Results shows that the methanol extract (ME) obtained from successive extraction has highest tannin content (TC), total phenolic content (TPC) and exhibited higher reducing power and hydrogen peroxide scavenging ability in comparison to petroleum ether, ethyl acetate and water extract (WE). But the methanol-water extract (MWE) obtained from Soxhlet extraction gave higher yield and found to have higher TC, TPC and also exhibited highest reducing power and hydrogen peroxide scavenging ability. However the MWE exhibited comparable antioxidant activity to that of ME obtained from successive extraction by maceration. A positive relationship was observed to be exists in between the antioxidant activity and the TPC of the extracts, when co-related. Except ethyl acetate, all the extracts exhibited significantly higher antioxidant activity in comparison to that of ascorbic acid (AA) used as standard. Conclusion: The results obtained proves that the areca seed extracts especially ME, MWE and WE have higher antioxidant activity than the well established antioxidant ascorbic acid which suggests that the areca seed examined is a potential source of natural antioxidant. Among the various extracts the ME and MWE exhibited comparable antioxidant activity although they were obtained from two different extraction processes.