Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Oriental Pharmacy and Experimental Medicine https://doi.org/10.1007/s13596-018-0333-y RESEARCH ARTICLE Antioxidant activity of Moringa oleifera seed extracts Ismet Ara Jahan 1  · M. Hemayet Hossain 1  · Khondoker Shahin Ahmed 1  · Zakia Sultana 2  · Pizush Kanti Biswas 1  · Katrun Nada 1 Received: 8 January 2017 / Accepted: 20 August 2018 © Institute of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University and Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract The present research evaluates the phytochemical and antioxidant activity of Moringa oleifera Lam. seed kernel grown in Bangladesh. M. oleifera seed kernel was extracted with methanol, acetone and water individually. The phytochemical content was evaluated through the determination of total phenolic, total favonoid and total tannin contents. In vitro antioxidant capac- ity was determined following four complementary methods: DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl, ABTS{2,2′-azinobis- (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)}, and NO (nitric oxide) free radical scavenging and reducing power tests. The total phenolic contents 60.99 ± 0.153, 30.78 ± 0.101 and 90.97 ± 0.134 mg gallic acid eq./g dry extract, total favonoids contents 10.13 ± 0.171, 13.32 ± 0.101 and 221.76 ± 0.221 mg quercetin eq./g and total tannins contents 97.10 ± 0.153, 73.91 ± 0.107 and 21.74 ± 0.086 mg gallic acid eq./g dry extract were found to be present in methanol, acetone and water extracts respec- tively. Among the three extracts, the water extract exhibited signifcant activities for scavenging DPPH, ABTS and NO free radicals with EC 50 values 36.89 ± 0.154, 13.20 ± 0.049 and 217.95 ± 0.327 μg/mL respectively against the standard anti- oxidant compound ascorbic acid and butylated hydroxy anisole. The results of this research revealed that among the three extracts of M. oleifera seed kernel the water extract exhibited signifcant free radical scavenging activity. Reducing power, total phenolic and total favonoid contents were also observed to be signifcant for the water extract. So in contrast of all the results of this study it can be concluded that among the three extracts (methanol, acetone and water) the water extract pos- sessed potent antioxidant activity which support the use of M. oleifera seed kernel as natural antioxidant. Keywords M. oleifera seed kernel · Antioxidant activity · Phenolic · Flavonoid · DPPH, ABTS · Nitric oxide free radical scavenging · Reducing power Introduction Moringa oleifera belongs to the family Moringaceae which contains around 13 species (Anwar et al. 2007; Janick and Paull 2008). It is native to Africa, Asia Minor, the Indian subcontinent (Somali et al. 1984) and is distributed in the Philippines, Cambodia, Central America, North and South America, and the Caribbean Islands (Morton 1991). The most commonly known species is the M. oleifera Lam., which is also known as drumstick tree (Awodele et al. 2012). Diferent parts of M. oleifera are used for various purposes such as, Fertilizer, green manure, animal feed, medicine, foliar nutrient, bio-pesticide, water purifier, sources of vitamin C are diferent uses of this plant (Emmanuel et al. 2011; Mahmood et al. 2010; Anwar et al. 2007; Coote et al. 1997; Fuglie 2001; Palada and Chang 2003; Mathur 2006; Oduro et al. 2008; Panda et al. 2008; De Oliveira et al. 2011; Luqman et al. 2012; Bichi 2013; Hassan and Ibrahim 2013; Ahmed et al. 2016). Moringa seed is used for decontamina- tion and treatment of high turbid water (Anwar et al. 2007). M. oleifera seeds contain 33–41% w/w vegetable oil (Rashid et al. 2008) and this oil is very much similar to the olive oil and contain every single unsaturated fat contained in olive oil, aside from linoliec. It is medicinally useful (Lalas and Tsaknis 2002). Moringa seed oil, has a defensive activity against poisonous impacts (Sánchez-Machado et al. 2010). It is broadly used as a part of cooking, lighting, hairdress- ing, cleanser and scent in commercial enterprises (Ghazali * Ismet Ara Jahan ismet0103@yahoo.com; araismet2016@gmail.com 1 Chemical Research Division, BCSIR Laboratories Dhaka, Bangladesh Council of Scientifc and Industrial Research (BCSIR), Dhaka 1205, Bangladesh 2 Pharmacy Department, Noakhali Science and Technology University, Noakhali, Bangladesh