Rapid antioxidant capacity screening in herbal extracts using a simple flow injection-spectrophotometric system

A simple flow injection (FI)-spectrophotometric system for the screening of antioxidant capacity in herbal extracts was developed. The analysis was based on the color disappearance due to the scavenging of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical by antioxidant compounds. DPPH and ascorbic acid were used as reagent and antioxidant standard, respectively. Effects of the DPPH concentration, DPPH flow rate, and reaction coil length on sensitivity were studied. The optimized condition provided the linear range of 0.010–0.300 mM ascorbic acid with less than 5%RSD(n = 10). Detection limit and quantitation limit were 0.004 and 0.013 mM, respectively. Comparison of antioxidant capacity in some herbal extracts determined by the FI system and a standard method was carried out and no significant difference was obtained.