Abstract
Clinopodium serpyllifolium subsp. serpyllifolium (CSS), an endemic-medicinal plant, is commonly used for treatment of irritated skin, mastitis- and prostatitis-related swelling, and inflammation, due to contain a number of triterpenes and triterpenoid saponins as well as some other bioactive substances. From this point-of-view, the aim of this study was to evaluate total polyphenolic contents, antioxidant activities and enzyme inhibitory effects of EtOH and dH(2)O extracts of stem and flower parts. In vitro DPPH, ABTS, FRAP, and CUPRAC assays were used for evaluation of antioxidant activities of the extracts. Neuroprotective potentials of the extracts were assessed using spectrophotometric microtiter assays towards AChE, BChE and TYR enzymes. In parallel to the experiments, total polyphenolic contents of the extracts were also determined as spectrophotometrically. According to the results of phenolic and flavonoid quantities in total, flower extracts possessed higher polyphenolic contents, comparing to those of stem extracts. EtOH extract prepared from the flower parts had the highest amount of total phenol and flavonoid (368.11 +/- 2.02 mg/g extract as GAE and 214.03 +/- 0.98 mg/g extract as QE), while stem-dH(2)O extract possessed the lowest ones. In antioxidant assays, scavenging activity of the extracts on DPPH were found to be in the range of 70.86 +/- 1.07-92.14 +/- 2.03% inhibition, whilst it was determined lower for ABTS radicals. In DPPH and FRAP assays, the stem-dH(2)O extract exerted the weakest antioxidant activity, whereas, flower-EtOH extract showed the lowest antioxidant capacity on ABTS and CUPRAC. Enzyme inhibition on the tested enzymes were resulted in the superiority of the flower-EtOH extract, as consistent with findings of total polyphenolic contents. These findings suggest that CSS could be an anticholinesterase agent and antioxidant resource for food, pharmacology and cosmetics industries.