A Study on the In Vitro Antioxidant Activity of Juniper (Juniperus communis L.) Fruit Extracts

Abstract

This study aimed at evaluating the in vitro antioxidant activity of water and ethanol extracts of juniper (Juniperus communis L., Family Cupressaceae) fruit. The antioxidant properties of both Juniper extracts were studied using different antioxidant assays, including reducing power, free radical scavenging, superoxide anion radical scavenging, hydrogen peroxide scavenging, and metal chelating activities. Both the water and the ethanol extracts exhibited strong total antioxidant activity. The concentrations of 20, 40, and 60 µg/mL of water and ethanol extracts of juniper fruit showed 75%, 88%, 93%, 73%, 84%, and 92% inhibition on peroxidation of linoleic acid emulsion, respectively. On the other hand, 60 µg/mL of standard antioxidant such as butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), and α‐tocopherol exhibited 96, 96, and 61 inhibitions on peroxidation of linoleic acid emulsion, respectively. However, both extracts of juniper had effective reducing power, free radical scavenging, superoxide anion radical scavenging, hydrogen peroxide scavenging, and metal chelating activities at these same concentrations (20, 40, and 60 µg/mL). Those various antioxidant activities were compared to BHA, BHT, and α‐tocopherol as standard antioxidants. In addition, total phenolic compounds in both aqueous and ethanolic juniper extracts were determined as gallic acid equivalents. Accordingly, these results indicate that juniper has in vitro antioxidant properties and these may be major reasons for the inhibition of lipid peroxidation properties.