DPPH radical scavenging activity and phenolic compound content in leaf extracts from raspberries

The objective of this study was to examine DPPH scavenging assays to determine the antioxidant activity of three species of raspberry leaves in Hyrcanian Forest (Rubus hyrcanus, R. caesius, and R. astarae). We tested three different solvents (methanolic, water, methanolic-water) to determine their extraction efficiency. The quality of the obtained extracts was affected mainly by the solvent used for extraction. For all tested Rubus species, activity at a given concentration was highest for the water extracts (IC50 = 228.0-163.0µg/ml).The most effective of the studied species was R. hyrcanus. The results for total content of phenolic compounds were in the range of 71.38 –138.31 mg GAE/g. The study confirmed a strong correlation between antioxidant activity and the content of phenolic compound in the extracts.