Variation in Total Polyphenolic Contents, DNA Protective Potential and Antioxidant Capacity from Aqueous and Ethanol Extracts in Different Plant Parts of Hypericum perforatum L.

Background and Purpose: Hypericum perforatum belonging to the family Hypericaceae is a reputed medicinal plant including a wide ranges of important phytochemical components. Chlorogenic acid, rutin, hyperoside, quercitrin, quercetin, pseudohypericin, hypericin and hyperforin are of the major components. Crude extract and individual compounds of H. perforatum have been reported to exert antidepressant, antibiotic, and antitumoral activities. It is worthy to note that the quantity and efficacies of the crude extracts or individual compound are not constant, which are strongly influenced by different climatic conditions, harvesting times, harvested plant organs and post-harvest practices. Hence, numerous studies on H. perforatum collected from different parts of the World are carried out for their desired quality and biological efficacy. Methods: Wild collected plant materials were dried and preserved with a voucher specimen number and were extracted using maceration at room temperature for 24 h in dark. Subsequently, extracts were screened for their phenolic and flavonoid contents, plausible antioxidant activities using two methods namely DPPH radical scavenging and ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays and DNA protective activities. Results: The highlights of the study were are listed as 1) the highest total phenolic content in ethanol extracts of leaf, ii) the highest total flavonoid content in flower, iii) DPPH scavenging activity in leaf (80.51 %), flower (63.42 %) and stem (48.20 %), iv) highest ferric reduction capacity in ethanol extracts of stem were determined. Also, potent DNA protection activity was observed even at the lowest concentration value (25μg/ml) of the extracts. Conclusion: The phenolic content and strong antioxidant activities of ethanol extracts of different parts of the plant are reported. All the extracts exhibited strong DNA protective activities in response to the UV radiation in the presence of hydrogen peroxide.