Free radical scavenging activity of methanolic extract of diplazium esculentum- a wild fern of western ghats

An attempt was made to investigate the antioxidant activity of the methanolic extract of Diplazium esculentum. Antioxidant activity of D. esculentum was evaluated using DPPH (1, 1- Diphenyl -2- picrylhydrazyl) and Ferric reducing power along with superoxide, hydroxyl and nitric oxide radical scavenging assays. The methanol extract showed the most potent radical-scavenging activity in DPPH with 85.43 % at a concentration of 12.5µg/ml, whereas the reducing power of the standard ascorbic acid was found to be only 58.3 %. The IC50 value of the extract was found to be 25.72 μg/ml. The extract manifested significant reducing power (0.98) which exceeded even that of ascorbic acid (0.772) at a concentration of 200 μg/ml. At a maximum concentration of 200 μg/ml, the extract showed 62.4 % inhibition of hydroxyl radical, 51.8% inhibition of superoxide radicals and 87.6 % of nitric oxide radicals respectively. The present investigation suggest that the methanolic extract of D.esculentum has significant antioxidant activity, so can be used as a promising food supplement or it may be utilized as a potential source of therapeutic agent.