Antioxidants 2013, 2(1), 1-10; doi:10.3390/antiox2010001
Article

High Correlation of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) Radical Scavenging, Ferric Reducing Activity Potential and Total Phenolics Content Indicates Redundancy in Use of All Three Assays to Screen for Antioxidant Activity of Extracts of Plants from the Malaysian Rainforest

Garry Clarke 1 email, Kang Nee Ting 2 email, Christophe Wiart 2 email and Jeffrey Fry 1,* email
1 School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK 2 School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Nottingham, Jalan Broga, 43500, Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 24 October 2012; in revised form: 29 November 2012 / Accepted: 20 December 2012 / Published: 4 January 2013
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Abstract: Extracts of plants from the Malaysian rainforest and other fragile habitats are being researched intensively for identification of beneficial biological actions, with assessment of antioxidant behavior being a common component of such assessments. A number of tests for antioxidant behavior are used, with the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and ferric reduction activity potential (FRAP) assays often being used in parallel, and also with measurement of total phenolics content (TPC) as a surrogate marker for antioxidant capacity. The present study investigated the possible redundancy in using all three assays to determine antioxidant capacity in 92 extracts obtained from 27 plants from the Malaysian rainforest. The results demonstrated that the assays displayed a high (R ≥ 0.82) and significant (P < 0.0001) correlation with one another, indicating a high level of redundancy if all three assays are used in parallel. This appears to be a waste of potentially valuable plant extracts. Because of problems with the FRAP assay relating to color interference and variable rates of reaction point, the DPPH assay is the preferred assay in preliminary screening of extracts of plants from the Malaysian rainforest.
Keywords: antioxidant; plant extracts; DPPH; FRAP; phenolics; correlation

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MDPI and ACS Style

Clarke, G.; Ting, K.N.; Wiart, C.; Fry, J. High Correlation of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) Radical Scavenging, Ferric Reducing Activity Potential and Total Phenolics Content Indicates Redundancy in Use of All Three Assays to Screen for Antioxidant Activity of Extracts of Plants from the Malaysian Rainforest. Antioxidants 2013, 2, 1-10.

AMA Style

Clarke G, Ting KN, Wiart C, Fry J. High Correlation of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) Radical Scavenging, Ferric Reducing Activity Potential and Total Phenolics Content Indicates Redundancy in Use of All Three Assays to Screen for Antioxidant Activity of Extracts of Plants from the Malaysian Rainforest. Antioxidants. 2013; 2(1):1-10.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Clarke, Garry; Ting, Kang N.; Wiart, Christophe; Fry, Jeffrey. 2013. "High Correlation of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) Radical Scavenging, Ferric Reducing Activity Potential and Total Phenolics Content Indicates Redundancy in Use of All Three Assays to Screen for Antioxidant Activity of Extracts of Plants from the Malaysian Rainforest." Antioxidants 2, no. 1: 1-10.

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