Antioxidant Effect of Methanol Extracts from Lotus Plumule and Blossom (Nelumbo nucifera Gertn.) 

LISU WANG 1, JUI-HUNG YEN 1,2, HSIAO-LING LIANG 3 AND MING-JIUAN WU 1,3* 

1.Institute of Biotechnology, Chia-Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, Tainan 717, Taiwan
2.ScinoPharm Biotech Ltd, Tainan Science-Based Industrial Park, Tainan 741, Taiwan
3.Department of Food Health, Chia-Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, Tainan 717, Taiwan

(Received: April 25, 2002; Accepted: November 20, 2002)

ABSTRACT

   Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera Gertn.) is a major economic aqueous plant in Tainan County. Lotus plumule contains various alkaloids and is used to remove "heat" or as tranquilizer and antihypertensive agent in folk medicine. Lotus blossom contains alkaloids, organic acids, amino acids, and b-carotenoid and is used to "warm" kidney and spleen or used as a cardiotonic in folk medicine. In an attempt to assess the possible antioxidant activities of methanol extracts of lotus plumule and blossom, several in vitro assays were conducted. We found that both lotus plumule and blossom possessed strong reducing powers and free radical scavenging abilities. However, only methanol extract of lotus plumule exhibited ferrous ion chelating capabilities, which might contribute to the difference in antioxidant activities between lotus plumule and lotus blossom when analyzing the preventive effects on fatty acid peroxidation and plasmid DNA damage. No mutagenicity in the methanol extract of lotus plumule or blossom was found for Salmonella typhimurium TA98 and TA100, either in the presence or absence of S9 mix.

Keywords: Lotus, Nelumbo nucifera Gertn., antioxidant activity