The antioxidant potential of Brassica rapa L. on glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase enzymes and total antioxidant status

Research on antioxidant potential from vegetables is increasingly focused on their effects on human health. However, relatively little work has been done to investigate the antioxidant effect of crude extract and/or different fractions from Brassica rapa L. In the present study, the antioxidant potential of crude extract and its fractions from Brassica rapa L. fruit part was tested for glutathione peroxidase (GPx), superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzymes and total antioxidant status (TAS) in blood samples. Our results reveal the fact that crude extract and each analyzed fraction (i.e. aqueous, ethyl acetate and chloroform) showed a concentration dependent effects on GPx, SOD and TAS in respect with saline solution (0.9% NaCl) used as negative control and vitamin C, as positive control. Therefore, GPx levels showed a highest value in crude extract and chloroform fraction (6981 U/L both at 10 mg/ml), SOD levels showed the same results in aqueous and ethyl acetate fractions (220 U/ml both at 10 mg/ml) and TAS in crude extract and all three fractions (i.e. aqueous, ethyl acetate and chloroform, 1.68 mmol/L at 10 mg/ml for all three fractions) in respect with saline solution (p<0.05). Furthermore, vitamin C showed the highest values on all three analyzed enzymes (8769 U/L for GPx, 223 U/ml for SOD and 1.8 mmol/L for TAS at 100 μg/ml). Our investigations have been proved to be promising in terms of future potential applications of crude extract and its fractions as components in a range of phytochemicals composition and/or different pharmaceutical usage, owing to their antioxidant potential.