Evaluation of Total Antioxidant Activity of Several Popular Vegetables and Chinese Herbs: A Fast Approach with ABTS/H2O2/HRP System in Microplates
ING-CHIEN CHEN1, HUI-CHI CHANG2, HUI-WEN YANG3 AND GAN-LIN CHEN4*
1. Institute of Plant Biology, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
2. Division of Pharmacy, The Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital in Dalin, Chiayi 622, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
3. Division of Pharmacy, Koo Foundation Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center, Taipei 112, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
4. Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, China Medical University, Taichung 404, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
(Received: April 20, 2003; Accepted: September 26, 2003)
ABSTRACT
Total antioxidant activities for several popular vegetables and traditional Chinese herbs were evaluated in an ABTS/H2O2/HRP system with a microplate reader. This improved method offers a rapid and sensitive way to measure total antioxidant activity of testing samples. Most samples had antioxidative capacities. Among the tested vegetables, sugar beet and red cabbage had the highest total antioxidant activity, whereas tropical Almond Terminalia and Moutan Radicis Cortex had exceptionally high total antioxidant activity in the tested Chinese herbs.
Key words: total antioxidant activity, vegetables, Chinese herb