Isolation of carbazole alkaloids and coumarins from Aegle marmelos and Murraya koenigii and their antioxidant properties

Abstract

In this paper, antioxidant properties of Aegle marmelos (stem bark, leaves) and Murraya koenigii (stem bark, root) were evaluated by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazy (DPPH) free radical scavenging, 2,2’-Azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiozoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) decolourisation, cupric reducing antioxidant capacity (CUPRAC), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and linoleic acid/β-carotene assays. The chloroform extract of Murraya koenigii stem bark was found to possess the highest antioxidant activity in CUPRAC (1490.89 mgTE/g extract). In contrary, the hexane extract from Aegle marmelos leaves exhibited the weakest antioxidant activity in the DPPH assay (81.06 mgTE/g extract). The bioactive compound mahanimbine (7) isolated from the stem bark of Murraya koenigii was found to be the most active antioxidant agent with TEAC of 927.73 and 1649.31 mgTE/g corresponding to the ABTS and CUPRAC assays, respectively, as well as a good lipid peroxidation inhibitor with an inhibitory percentage of 70.95%. These CUPRAC and ABTS assays are the first report for Malaysian Murraya koenigii species.