Antioxidant activity of ethanol extracts from Chinese seabuckthorn berries in vitro and on HepG2 cells

In this research, the antioxidant capacity of ethanol extracts from Chinese seabuckthorn berries was comprehensively analyzed in vitro at biochemical level.On the basis of evaluation of cytotoxicity, flow cytometry method was used to analysis the cellular antioxidant activity of the ethanol extracts in Hep G2 cells. The results showed that the extracts had an effectively removal effect on ABTS free radicals, when the concentration reached at 5 mg/m L, the scavenging rate was similar to that of positive control BHT.The extracts also effectively inhibited NO free radicals, however, the inhibition rate was weaker than that of BHT at the same concentration.The extracts at 5 mg/m L significantly inhibited lipid peroxidation, however, the inhibition rate was lower than that of BHT at the same concentration. The total antioxidant capacity was enhanced as the concentration increased, when the concentration reached at 5 mg/m L, the total antioxidant capacity was similar to that of BHT. Among the concentration of 0.05~5 mg/m L, the extracts showed no cytotoxicity.At the concentration of 0.5, 1, 5 mg/m L, the positive cells rate of extracts was reduced by 75.22%, 72.36% and 78.2% compared with the positive control respectively.It is suggested that ethanol extracts from Chinese seabuckthorn not only had a stronger antioxidant capacity at biochemical level, but also had an antioxidant ability at the cellular level.