IN VITRO ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITIES OF FRUITS AND LEAVES OF POMEGRANATE

Radical scavenging activities of water soluble extracts from leaves, fruit peel, seeds, and juice of pomegranate were measured by the 1, 1-diphenyl-2- picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2, 2’-Azinobis 3-Ethyl-benzothiazoline-6-Sulphonate (ABTS) methods. In both methods, both leaf and peel exhibited very strong antioxidant activity and high polyphenol content when compared to seeds and juice, and they had the same IC₅₀ values of 0.14 mg/ml in the DPPH method; juice of pomegranate had higher radical scavenging activity than seeds but lower polyphenol content. The antioxidative capacities among pomegranate juice, apple juice and orange juice were also compared. The pomegranate juice is obviously higher than the apple juice and the orange juice in two kinds of free radical elimination activity, and apple juice showed the lowest in both DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging activities. The relation between the polyphenol content and the antioxidative activities was analyzed.