Preliminary assessment of antioxidant activity of young edible leaves of seven Ficus species in the ethnic diet in Xishuangbanna, Southwest China

The young leaves of seven Ficus species including F. virens var. sublanceolata, F. auriculata, F. vasculosa, F. callosa, F. virens var. verins, F. racemosa and F. oligodon are traditionally consumed by local people in Xishuangbanna. The dry young leaves were studied for their total phenolic and flavonoid contents. The 90% ethanolic extracts of the young leaves were screened for potential antioxidant capacity by employing different in vitro assays including ABTS+ and DPPH radical scavenging capacities, ferric reducing power and lipid peroxidation inhibition properties. Extracts from F. virens var. sublanceolata and F. auriculata showed higher antioxidant activity in all the systems than other species. We concluded that these two species are promising sources of natural dietary antioxidants. According to our statistical analysis, the total phenolic and flavonoid contents appear to be responsible, at least in part, for the extracts’ excellent antioxidant capacity and all the extracts exhibited dose-dependent antioxidant activity.