Phytochemical composition and antioxidant activities of different aerial parts extracts of Ferula communis L.

The present study aimed to assess antioxidant activities of three organs (flower, fruit, and stem) extracts of Tunisian Ferula (F.) communis. Various experimental models were used to characterize the antioxidant activities in vitro as well as on ROS-induced fluorescence using dichlorofluorescein technique from phorbol myristate acetate (PMA)-stimulated human myeloid cell line HL-60. Results showed that the antioxidant activities varied considerably with organs. Thus, flower exhibited higher DPPH-scavenging ability, reducing and chelating power than stem and fruit. Also, antioxidant capacities using ORAC method and a cell-based assay showed that fruit and stem exhibited statistically similar antioxidant activities. Moreover, F. communis contains high amounts of flavonoids with various health benefits attributed to their antioxidant potential. Likewise, to obtain biologically relevant information, the antioxidant activities of the extracts were evaluated on cellular models implicating the antioxidant activities; this test generally showed that F. communis flower extracts have the highest antioxidant capacities correlated to the highest total phenolic content. The identification of phenolic compounds in F. communis extracts using RP-HPLC revealed that resorcinol, ferulic, and syringic acids together with coumarin were the major molecules.