Survey of Antioxidant Properties of Barberry: A Chemical and Chemometric Approach

Abstract

Berberis vulgaris (barberry) is a plant belonging to the Berberidaceae family and its medicinal properties have been known since ancient times. In this study, we have evaluated the antioxidant activity of fruit, leaves, root bark, and branch bark extracts of B. vulgaris, depending on the habitat and maturity by five methods: 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging activity; 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) cation decolorization activity; total reducing power; cupric ion reducing antioxidant power; and the ferric ion reducing antioxidant power. Also, we determined the total phenolic and flavonoid contents. Of the analyzed extracts, the highest phenolic and flavonoid content was found in the extract of the fruit, 494 ± 2 µg GAE/mg dry extract weight and 2170 ± 4 µg RE/mg dry extract weight, respectively. Depending on the method used for the assay, the plant extracts show different antioxidant capacities but there is a certain pattern. All of the antioxidant assays have indicated the high antioxidant activity of B. vulgaris extracts. The extract of fruit stood out with the highest antioxidant activity while the bark of the roots of wild plants had the lowest activity. The study enhanced using chemometric analysis and cluster analysis was used to investigate the similarities between analyzed extracts.

Keywords:

• Antioxidant activity
• Berberis vulgaris
• cluster analysis
• flavonoids
• phenols

Conflict of interest

All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia under Grant (OI 171025 and OI 172051).