In Vitro Antioxidant Properties of Gum Extract From The Carob (Ceratonia silique L.) Plant

Abstract

The experiment was conducted in the laboratories of the College of Agriculture, University of Basra, for the period from 22/9/2019 to 25/ 11/2019. The current study aims to extract gum from the carob fruits, to determine the active substances and the possibility of using them as antioxidants. The results showed that the gum of the fruits of the carob plant contains all the active compounds under study, which included Alkaloids, Phenols, Flavonoids, Glycosides, Steroids, Tannins, Resins, Saponins and Coumarins. The results also showed that the gum of the fruits of the carob plant showed antioxidant activity of about 84.55 % when used at a concentration of 0.2 %, while the average antioxidant efficacy of the industrial compound Butylated Hydroxy Toluene (BHT) and Ascorbic acid was about 93.43 %, 91.12 % at the same concentration. The Reductive power were about 73.20 % and 83.30 % with a concentration of 0.1 % and 0.2 % respectively, which was comparable to the effect of industrial antioxidants (BHT) and ascorbic acid with a concentration of 0.2 %, which was 91.40 % and 90.70 %, respectively. In addition, the gum of the fruits of the carob plant has the potential to sweep hydrogen peroxide with a capacity similar to ascorbic acid and without significant difference (p≤0.05), reaching 41 % and 50% for concentrations 0.1 % and 0.2 %, respectively, while ascorbic acid reached 45 % with the presence of moral differences with the industrial antioxidant (BHT) in its susceptibility to the sweep of hydrogen peroxide at 73 %. The results also showed that the gum of the fruits of the carob plant is able to bind to the Ferrous ion and this portability increased with the increased concentration of gum to reach its highest average of 43.19 % at the concentration of 0.2 % while the average Ferrous ion for antioxidant (EDTA 2Na) was 55.48 %.