Review: Lichen as possible sources of antioxidants

So, with school starting tomorrow, I promised myself that I will be reading a couple of articles per day (trying for 5 articles per day).  So I'll be making individual posts on them.  For those who are wondering about it can read along, if not then I will be continuing to post my typical posts on herbs also



About the Journal itself:

• Title: Lichen as possible sources of antioxidants
• Authors: Marijana Kosanic, Branislav Rankovic
• Journal: Pakistan Journal of Pharmaceutical Science
• Edition: Vol. 24, No. 2, April 2011
• Pages: 165-170
• Journal Impact Factor: 0.581

Experimental procedure

• Lichens used: Cetraria islandica, Lecanora atra, Parmelia pertusa, Pseudoevernia furfuraceae, Umbilicaria cylindrica
• Experiments used: DPPH radical scavenging, superoxide anion radical scavenging, reducing power, determination of total phenolic compounds and determination of total flavonoid content.
• Control: ascorbic acid (vitamin c), butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), alpha-tocopherol
• Extraction solution used: acetone, methanol, water

Results from the experiment

• From the DPPH radical scavenging, the lichen extracts (Lecanora atra was the extract that had the highest percentage) have a higher inhibition on DPPH radical as compared to vitamin c, BHA, and alpha-tocopherol
• On reducing power capacity, the lichen extracts were not better than the controls

Final words

• This article is implying that lichens can be used as an antioxidant in cells, but further studies in the human body is necessary.
• They were implying a correlation to the phenolic content to antioxidant activity

Source

Pubmed

Research Gate (full article)