Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of Ribes nigrum extracts

Blackcurrant berries contain high amounts of flavonoids with various health benefits as anti-inflammatory properties attributed to their antioxidant potential. Leaves and buds actually used to produce food supplement could also exhibit such interesting properties. In the literature, various methods are often used and valid indicators of the antioxidant potential of dietary substances. However these assays do not provide evidence that antioxidants have in vivo or ex vivo activity when consumed. To obtain biologically relevant information, the antioxidant activities of the extracts were evaluated on cellular models implicating the measurement of blood haemolysis, the Cellular Antioxidant Activity on endothelial cells and the anti-inflammatory activities on isolated equine stimulated neutrophils and purified myeloperoxidase. These tests generally showed that the blackcurrant leaf extract have the highest antioxidant and anti-inflammatory (inhibition of MPO activity and ROS production on activated neutrophils) capacities correlated to the highest total phenolics content. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.