Vol. 59 No. 3 2013 Antioxidant activity, total phenolic and flavonoids contents of three herbs used as condiments and additives in pickles products ABDOLLAH GHASEMI PIRBALOUTI 1,2* , MILAD SETAYESH 3 , AMIR SIAHPOOSH 3 , HAMID MASHAYEKHI 2 1 Shahrekord Branch Islamic Azad University Research Centre of Medicinal Plants & Ethno-veterinary P.O. Box: 166 Shahrekord, Iran 2 Medicinal Plants Program Stockbridge School of Agriculture College of Natural Science University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA 01003, USA 3 Herbal Medicine and Natural Products Research Center Department of Pharmacognosy School of Pharmacy Ahwaz Jondishapur University of Medical Sciences Ahwaz, Iran *corresponding author: e-mail: ghasemi@iaushk.ac.ir or aghasemipir@psis.umass. edu, phone: +1(413) 545 2570; fax: +1 (413) 545-3958 Summary Heracleum lasiopetalum Boiss, Kelussia odoratissima Mozaff., and Echinophora platyloba DC. belong the Apiaceae family. They are Iranian endemic plants. These three herbs have been used as food additives in traditional preparations such as pickles. Antioxidant activity (AA) of methanol extracts (ME) of the plants was evaluated by three assays, including DPPH, FRAP, and TEAC. From all three assays, comparing all the MEs for their IC 50 and EC 1 values, E. platyloba had the highest AA. Total phenolic content (TPC) of the extracts ranged from 74 to 120 mg TAE/g. The extract of H. lasiopetalum exhibited the highest TPC. The flavonoids