The In Vitro Antioxidant Properties of Chinese Highland Lichens

Antioxidant properties of 46 lichen species collected from high-UV exposed alpine areas of southwestern China were evaluated for their therapeutic utilization. Anti-linoleic acid peroxidation activity, 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging activity, reducing power and the total phenolic contents were assessed in methanol extract of the lichens in vitro. Extracts of Peltigera praetextata and Sticta nylanderiana exhibited potent activity in all antioxidant tests. Especially, extracts of S. nylanderiana exhibited 1.37 times higher anti-linoleic acid peroxidation activity than ascorbic acid used as a positive control. It also showed the strongest free radical scavenging activity among all the tested species with an inhibition of 90.4% at the concentration of 330microgram/ml. Potent reducing power was also detected in the lichen extract compared with BHA. Generally, the antioxidant lichens contained large amount of phenolic contents. The activity-guided bioautographic TLC and HPLC analysis are used to find out the compounds responsible for the potent antioxidant activities of S. nylanderiana extract. The analysis demonstrated that lecanoric acid is one of the effective antioxidant compounds in S. nylanderiana. The results suggested that several highland lichens can be used as a novel bioresource for natural antioxidants.