Antioxidant and antifungal activities of extracts and fractions from Anemone taipaiensis, China

In two in-vitro antioxidant assays, the antioxidant activities of ethanol crude extracts (ECE) and its 4-sub fractions [Petroleum ether fraction (PEF), ethyl acetate fraction (EAF), n-butanol fraction (BAF) and the water fraction (WF)] from the aerial parts of Anemone taipaiensis were investigated. EAF had the most potent radical-scavenging activity on DPPH radicals and reducing power, with EC50 values of 55.6 +/- 9.9 and 46.7 +/- 12.2 mu g/ml, respectively, followed by BAF (EC50 values of 90.2 +/- 4.7 and 54.0 +/- 18.7 mu g/ml). Preliminary antifungal activity of ECE and three sub fractions (PEF, EAF, BAF) were studied against 20 plant pathogenic fungi with mycelial growth method. The growth inhibition range of ECE was 36.6-91.3%, while those of PEF, EAF and BAF were between 48.7-98.5%. Four plant pathogenic fungi (Rhizoctonia cerealis E.P. van der Hoeven, Verticillium dahliae Kleb., Colletotrichum gloeosporioides Spauld. & H. Schrenk, and Venturia pyrin Aderh.) with high inhibition rate (> 50 %), were chosen for further growth kinetics analysis. Among all extracts examined, the BAF was most inhibitory to growth of R. cerealis (EC50 = 0.01 +/- 0.00 mg/ml), V. pyrina (EC50 = 0.37 +/- 0.32 mg/ml), V. dahliae (EC50 = 2.31 +/- 0.57 mg/ml) and C. gloeosporioides (EC50 = 3.03 +/- 0.03 mg/ml), respectively. These results demonstrated that the phytochemicals of A. taipaiensis had strong potential activities, hence, the further isolation and identification of related phytochemicals are required in this plant.