Industrial Crops and Products 55 (2014) 238–247 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Industrial Crops and Products jo u r n al homep age: www.elsevier.com/locate/indcrop Chemical characterization and antioxidant activity of three medicinal Apiaceae species Maulidiani a , Faridah Abas a,b , Alfi Khatib a,c , Khozirah Shaari a,d , Nordin H. Lajis a,e,∗ a Laboratory of Natural Products, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia b Department of Food Science, Faculty of Food Science and Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia c Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuantan 25200, Pahang, Malaysia d Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia e Scientific Chairs Unit, Taibah University, P.O. Box 30001, Madinah al-Munawarah, Saudi Arabia a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 24 September 2013 Received in revised form 10 February 2014 Accepted 11 February 2014 Available online 15 March 2014 Keywords: C. asiatica H. bonariensis H. sibthorpioides HPLC–DAD–ESIMS a b s t r a c t Centella asiatica (‘Pegaga’ = Malaysia) is well known plant that has been used as one of the ingredients in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Using liquid chromatography with diode array and elec- trospray ionization/mass spectrometry (LC–DAD–ESI/MS) analysis, chemical profiling of three different Pegaga extracts (C. asiatica, H. bonariensis and H. sibthorpioides) revealed variations in their metabo- lite profile. Our findings showed that triterpenes of C. asiatica were characterized by the ursane-type triterpenes (madecassoside, asiaticoside, madecassic acid, and asiatic acid), while the two Hydrocotyle species consisted of oleanane-type triterpenes (barrigenol derivatives). Other variations are due to the difference in phenolic and flavonoid constituents. The three Pegaga extracts were also evalu- ated for their total phenolic content (TPC), 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radicals, and xanthine oxidase inhibition (XOI) activities. The results showed that C. asiatica has the most potent antioxidant activity (TPC = 72.09 mg/100 g DW; DPPH = 72.99 g/ml; XOI = 87.68 g/ml) as compared to H. bonariensis (TPC = 28.55 mg/100 g DW; DPPH = 22.43 g/ml; XOI = 32.23 g/ml) and H. sibthorpioides (TPC = 56.23 mg/100 g DW; DPPH = 37.86 g/ml; XOI = 14.73. g/ml). © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Pegaga (Malaysian Pennywort) are perennial creeping plants of the genus Centella and Hydrocotyle of the Apiaceae family (De Padua and Bunyapraphatsara, 1999). In Malaysia, Pegaga, is valued medicinally and also consumed as a traditional vegetable or ‘ulam’. Common varieties of Pegaga are Centella asiatica (asiatic penny- wort), Hydrocotyle bonariensis (large leaf marsh pennywort), and Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides (lawn marsh pennywort). C. asiatica has been used since prehistoric time as a herbal remedy for a wide range of applications such as treatment of skin diseases and as a tonic for improving youth, longevity and memory (Burkill, 1966). In the pharmaceuticals industry, C. asiatica is a dermatologically effective phytotherapeutic agent that has been used in the form of complex ∗ Corresponding author at: Laboratory of Natural Products, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. Tel.: +603 89471248; fax: +: 603 89472218 E-mail addresses: khozirah@upm.edu.my (K. Shaari), nordinlajis@gmail.com (N.H. Lajis). homeopathic preparations, such as an ointment for external appli- cation (Brinkhaus et al., 2000). C. asiatica has been also used in the cosmetics industry, e.g. as anti-ageing specifically for ameliorating lines and wrinkles, and prophylactically treating loss of elasticity (Oblong and Bissett, 1997), and improving keratinocytes differen- tiation and for enhancing the epidermal functionality (Sene et al., 2007). The phytochemistry (Rastogi et al., 1960; Asakawa et al., 1982; Matsuda et al., 2001) and pharmacology (Brinkhaus et al., 2000) of C. asiatica has been extensively studied. The main compounds that have been reported to exhibit various physiological effects include its characteristic triterpenoids asiaticoside, madecassoside, asiatic acid and madecassic acid (Gunther and Wagner, 1996). Other classes of compounds such as sterols, polyacetylenes (Govindan et al., 2007), flavonoids and chlorogenic acids (Satake et al., 2007) were also reported to be present in C. asiatica. Despite its popular use, a great deal of uncertainly still exist with regards to the differences between the Pegaga varieties, present- ing problems in quality control and standardization of downstream products derived from the plants. Earlier, we were able to differen- tiate between the three Pegaga varieties C. asiatica, H. bonariensis, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2014.02.013 0926-6690/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.