야관문 잎 페놀 추출물의 항산화능 및 미백 효과

Abstract

Lespedeza cuneata G. Don is a plant commonly grown in Asian countries, which has been widely used as an oriental medicinal herb to treat diabetes, diarrhea and various other inflammatory diseases. The phenolics of dry leaves of L. cuneata G. Don were extracted by using 80% (v/v) aqueous methanol in assistance with homogenization and sonification. The phenolic extract and its five different fractions (n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, n-butanol, and water) were used to evaluate the levels of total phenolics, total flavonoids, and antioxidant capacity as well as the inhibitory effect of tyrosinase activity. Ethyl acetate fraction (1 g) had the highest levels of total phenolics at 240.8 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAF), total flavonoids as 90.4 mg catechin equivalents (CE) as well as antioxidant capacity at 523.4 mg vitamin C equivalents (VCE) on ABTS assay and 329.5 mg VCE on DPPH assay among fractions. One g of water fraction contained total phenolics at 133.1 mg GAE, total flavonoids at 34.5 mg CE, and antioxidant capacity at 333.4 mg VCE for ABTS assay and 313.2 mg VCE for DPPH assay. inhibition of tyrosinase activity of water fraction at 300 mu g.mL(-1) was at 47.2% and 21.1 % for L-tyrosine and L-DOPA as its substrate, respectively. On the other hand, ethyl acetate fraction at 300 mu g.mL(-1) showed tyrosinase inhibition of 10.2% for L-tyrosine and 11.9% for L-DOPA. These results suggested that the phenolics from dry leaves of L. cuneata G. Don may be utilized as a potent source of antioxidants and skin whitening agents.