Biochemical studies on purslane plant in some African countries / Rabab Khairy Hassan Kashef ; Supervised Hazem Mohamed Mahmoud Hassan , Amira Showky Soliman , Nasra Ahmed Abdelhak

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of African Postgraduate Studies - Department of Natural Resources

Egyptian purslane (Portulaca oleracea L.) is a green plant which has been known since times of the ancient Egyptians rarely found now in Egypt. The objective of this work was to evaluate the chemical composition of purslane leaves, minerals, vitamin, fatty acid (omega-3), total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of different solvent extracts of Egyptian purslane leaves by using different assays, antimicrobial activity, antitumor and studying the inhibitory effect of Fe+2 induced lipid peroxidation in rat brain. Purslane leaves extracted by using four using different solvents: Ethanol, methanol and water (cold and hot). The total phenolic and total flavonoid contents were determined in all extracts. The antioxidant activity was determined using total antioxidant capacity, reducing power, DPPH radical scavenging, nitric oxide scavenging, hydroxyl radical scavenging and Fe+2 chelating activity. The results revealed that the highest amount of phenolic content was found in methanol extract (326.80±31.22 mg/g purslane leaves) while the lowest amount was found in hot water extract (228.27±58.06 mg/g purslane leaves). The purslane extracts exhibited antioxidant activity in all assays. The methanol extract possessed in the highest antioxidant activity among purslane extracts could be associated with its content of phenolic compounds

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