Antioxidative Activities of Medicinal Plants from TCM

Qi-Mei      Liu; Jian-Guo      Jiang

Abstract

As a natural antioxidant resource, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been paid much more attentions than before. The studies on its antioxidative activity have also increased dramatically in recent years. Abundant studies on TCM show that some TCM can increase body's activity of antioxidant enzymes, enhance body's ability of scavenging free radicals and decrease the generation of lipid peroxide (LPO) and malondialdehyde (MDA) in the body etc. The action mechanism of TCM is closely related to its active constituents, including polysaccharides, quinines, flavonoids, saponins, alkaloids, terpenes, phenolic acids compounds and tannins etc. Through referring to related reports on TCM, in the last 20 years, this paper reviews literatures involved in antioxidation research on TCM. Antioxidative mechanism, functional property and application prospect of some active constituents with antioxidation in TCM are discussed.

Keywords: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), antioxidative effect, antioxidative mechanism, active constituents, lipid peroxide, in vivo, in vitro, enzymes, Polysaccharides