Free Radical Scavenging Activity of Water Extract of Heartwood of Pterocarpus marsupium

The antioxidant activities of water extract of heartwood of Pterocarpus marsupium were evaluated in different systems viz., radical scavenging activity by DPPH reduction, nitric oxide (NO) radical scavenging in sodium nitroprusside/Griess reagent system. The results indicate that the reducing power of a substance may be an indicator of its potential antioxidant activity, but it is not necessarily a linear correlation between these two activities. The extract was found to have different level of antioxidant properties in the models tested. In scavenging DPPH and nitric oxide (NO), its activity was intense (EC₅₀ = 182.74 and 66.028 μg/ml respectively). The free radical scavenging property may be one of the mechanism by which this drug is effective in several free radical mediated disease conditions.