Studio dell'attività antiossidante di estratti da piante della flora sarda

The present work was carried out to study the effect of some plant methanol extracts and essential oils on lipid peroxidation in simple in vitro systems. The tested extracts were obtained from four plants, commonly known in the Mediterranean area, autochthonous in Sardinia, as Artemisia arborescens, Calycotome villosa, Daphne gnidium or exotic naturalised in the island as Eucalyptus globulus. We investigated the activity of the extracts during both the autoxidation and the iron or EDTA-mediated oxidation of linoleic acid at 37°C in absence of solvent, and compared it with that of BHT, a-tocopherol and EDTA. During linoleic acid autoxidation all the extracts were active, showing an antioxidant activity growing in the order: BHT > αtocopherol > Daphne gnidium (methanol extract) > Eucalyptus globulus (essential oil) > Calycotome villosa (essential oil) > Artemisia arborescens (essential oil and methanol extract) > Calycotome villosa (methanol extract). None of them showed any prooxidant activity. During the iron-catalysed oxidation of linoleic acid the oils were not active, while all the methanol extracts showed some efficiency to prevent the oxidation process.