Phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity of Achillea arabica populations

In this study, we aimed to present the screening of the contents of phenolics including caffeoylquinic acid derivatives, quercetin, luteolin, apigenin and some their derivatives as well as santin and total antioxidant activity for a total of 53 populations of Achillea arabica Kotschy from different parts of Turkey. The flowering plant material was evaluated for phenolic compound contents by using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC-PDA) fingerprint analysis. The antioxidant activity of plant extracts was evaluated by free radical scavenging (ABTS) and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays. Phenolic contents and antioxidant activity varied remarkably across populations and a significant correlation was found between particular phenolics content and antioxidant activity, suggesting that phenolic metabolites can be regarded as main contributors to the observed antioxidant capacity. The data are valuable in selecting of germplasms, whose plant material may be important in the development of new bioproducts and present A. arabica as a convenient and readily accessible source of natural antioxidants that can be incorporated in food and pharmaceutical applications.