Evaluation of Invitro Antioxidant Activity of Flowers of Tagetes erecta

Tagetes erecta (T. erecta) is an herbaceous species, having wide ethno medicinal and traditional uses. It demonstrates different pharmacological activities like antioxidant, antimicrobial and anti depressant. The present study deals with the estimation of antioxidant properties of four solvent extracts of flowers of T. erecta. The study aims to discover potent extracts as a novel source of natural antioxidant. The crude extracts; Petroleum ether (PE), Chloroform (CF), Ethyl Acetate (EA) and Methanol (MET) were screened for their free radical scavenging capacity and reducing powers using DPPH, Superoxide and Reducing power assay. Ascorbic acid was used as standard. All the extracts show considerable antioxidant potential. However, methanolic extract can strongly scavenge DPPH and superoxide radical with significant IC50 value range 30.08 ± 0.98 μg/mL and 64.22±0.04 μg/mL respectively. The IC50 value of the extracts follows the order; MET<EA<PE<CF. Lowest IC50 value indicates highest antioxidant potential. The reducing power of extracts were in the order; CF<PE<EA<Met.