Antioxidant properties of Cortex Fraxini and its simple coumarins

We present the antioxidant properties of crude extract, fractions and ingredients of Cortex Fraxini (CF) and compare the antioxidant capacities of coumarin ingredients of CF and known antioxidants, including catechin, quercetin, ascorbic acid, trolox and BHT. The IC₅₀ values for CF in the DPPH and TEAC methods were 406 and 39.3 μg/ml, respectively. Among all fractions the chloroform fraction is the most active fraction in scavenging DPPH, ABTS and hydroxyl radicals, and there is a significant relationship between the antioxidant activities and the contents of the antioxidant phenolic ingredients. The contents of esculetin and fraxetin in the chloroform fraction were 8.44% and 11.1%, respectively. Esculetin and fraxetin also had good radical-scavenging capacities, and esculetin was the best, among all test compounds, against the DPPH radical. Moreover, esculetin and fraxetin had selective scavenging activity upon hydroxyl radicals and hydrogen peroxide, and this potency was better than known antioxidants and equal to quercetin in scavenging hydrogen peroxide. These results show that CF, partitioned with chloroform, gave a phenolic coumarin-enriched fraction, and that this fraction had the best free radical-scavenging activity and inhibition of Fe²⁺/ascorbate-induced lipid peroxidation, mainly due to its reducing power.