Original Research Article Annals of Plant Sciences ISSN: 2287-688X www.annalsofplantsciences.com OPEN ACCESS *Corresponding Author: Dr. Aniruddha Sarma Assistant Professor & Head, Department of Biotechnology, Pandu College, Pandu, Guwahati - 781 012 Assam, India. Page| 779 Nutraceutical properties of Stellaria media (L.) Vill. and Persicaria chinensis (L.) H. Gross under Brahmaputra valley agro-climatic condition Pranjal Sarmah, Aniruddha Sarma * , Debaleena Kashyap, Mantu Mahanta and Pramod Medhi Institutional Biotech Hub, Department of Biotechnology, Pandu College, Pandu, Guwahati, Assam, India Received for publication: June 05, 2014; Accepted: July 17, 2014. Introduction For sustaining healthy and active life, our diet should contain proper nutritional elements which have health promoting as well as health protective activity. The dietary habits of population in different region of the world have been determined mainly by the availability of foods locally and local practices. Production of certain free radicals such as super oxide, hydrogen peroxide, hydroxyl and nitric oxide radicals are the consequence of body’s natural metabolic process which may be involved in the onset of many diseases such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and atherosclerosis as well as in degenerative processes associated with ageing 1 . Almost all organisms are well protected against free radical damage by enzymes such as superoxide dismutase and catalase, or compounds such as ascorbic acid, tocopherols and glutathione 2 . When the mechanism of antioxidant protection becomes unbalanced by factors such as aging, deterioration of physiological functions may occur, resulting in diseases and accelerating aging. However the natural antioxidant such as vitamin C, E, carotenoids, phenolic compounds, etc. that are present in herbs and spices are responsible for inhibiting or preventing the deleterious consequences of oxidative stress exerted by the reactive oxygen species (ROS) 3 . It has been reported that the antioxidant activity of plant materials are well correlated with the content of their phenolic compounds 4,5 . Phenolic compounds, especially phenolic acids and flavonoids, are ubiquitously present in vegetables, fruits, seeds, tea, wines and juices; thus they are an integral part of the human diet. In a broad sense, nutritive foods are those foods, which not only provide nutrition but at the same time have health protective and health promoting properties. Persicaria chinensis is a perennial plant species from the Polygonaceae family and is one of the most common plants found in the Abstract: A substantial number of herbs have been used as dietary source and plays a vital role in improving our health. Antioxidant compounds in diet play an important role as a health protecting factor. Various herbs have been reported to exhibit antioxidant activity which contains many different antioxidant compounds (i.e. vitamin C and E, carotenoids and phenolic compounds), that serve as free radical scavengers. The present study was subjected to investigate the nutraceutical property and antioxidant activity of Stellaria media (L.) Vill. (Family- Caryophyllaceae) and Persicaria chinensis (L.) H. Gross (Polygonaceae) found available in Brahmaputra Valley agro-Climatic Condition. The protein and carbohydrate content were slightly higher in case of P. chinensis than that of S. media. But the total crude fibre content was found to be more in S. media. It has been observed that ascorbic acid and total phenolic content was higher in P. chinensis than that of S. media. Free radical scavenging activity was evaluated using 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical. The overall antioxidant activity of P. chinensis was the stronger than that of S. media. The IC 50 value of the methanolic extract of P. chinensis is 520.78± 0.79 and that of S. media is 1020 ± 0.68μg/ml. The study reveals that the use of these plants as therapeutic agent would exert several beneficial effects by virtue of their antioxidant activity and also can be a rich source of nutrition in our diet system. Key Words: Stellaria media, Persicaria chinensis, Antioxidant activity, DPPH, Total Phenolic content, Ascorbic acid, Gallic acid.