Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Sun protection factor, total phenol, flavonoid contents and antioxidant activity of medicinal plants from Iran

Zahra Hashemi¹, Mohammad Ali Ebrahimzadeh¹ , Masoumeh Khalili²

¹Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, Hemoglobinopathy Institute, School of Pharmacy, and Student Research Committee, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari; ²Neuroscience Research Center, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran.

For correspondence:- Mohammad Ebrahimzadeh Email: zadeh20@yahoo.com

Accepted: 3 November 2018 Published: 28 July 2019

Citation: Hashemi Z, Ebrahimzadeh MA, Khalili M. Sun protection factor, total phenol, flavonoid contents and antioxidant activity of medicinal plants from Iran. Trop J Pharm Res 2019; 18(7):1443-1448 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v18i7.11

© 2019 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the correlation between sun protection factor (SPF) and the content of phenol and flavonoid and antioxidant activity.

Methods: Different parts of 9 medicinal plants were extracted with methanol using three extraction methods (percolation, Soxhlet and ultrasonically assisted extraction) to obtain 42 crude extracts. Their phenol and flavonoid contents, and antioxidant activities were determined using Folin-Ciocalteu reagent, aluminum chloride method and DPPH radical-scavenging activity, respectively. The SPF values were determined and correlated with the phenol and flavonoid contents as well as antioxidant activities.

Results: The phenol and flavonoid contents, and antioxidant activities ranged from 54.16-688.97mg GAE/g, 13.38-146.60 mg QE/g and 9.5-1472.4 µg/mL, respectively while the SPFs were between 0.067 and 0.841. The highest SPF was related to Cucumis melo L. ultrasonically assisted leaf extract (0.841) and Artemisia absinthium L., aerial parts extracted with percolation method (0.717). A significant correlation was found between SPF and phenolic (p= 0.003) and flavonoid contents (p= 0.023).

Conclusion: This study showed a correlation between SPF and phenolic and flavonoid contents. Ultrasonically assisted extract of C. melo leaf has suitable SPF and can be used in sun screen formulations.

Keywords: Artemisia absinthium, Cucumis melo, Echium amoenum, Orobanche orientalis, Sambucus ebulus, Sun burn, Sun protection factor, flavonoids, phenols