Essential fatty acid components and antioxidant activities of eight Cephalaria species from southwestern Anatolia

Pure and Applied Chemistry, Dec, 2007 by Suheyla Kirmizigul, Nazli Boke, Huseyin Sumbul, R. Suleyman Gokturk, Nazli Arda

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

The amount of malondialdehyde degraded from the peroxides at a later stage of lipid peroxidation (8th day) was measured by the TBA method (Fig. 2). The decrease in absorbance values indicated that all the extracts suppressed the formation of malondialdehyde. The most active species were C. cilicica, C. lycica, and C. gazipashaensis, and their antioxidant activity was similar to that of Trolox. BHT seemed to be the most effective antioxidant under these experimental conditions. It is well known that unsaturated fatty acids that contain more double bonds would be easily oxidized [24]. Here, the results of the TBA assay obtained from the species, including the highest amount of ALA, which contains three double bonds, are inconsistent with this phenomenon.

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

CONCLUSION

It is well known that the EFAs play important roles in preventing many diseases and abnormal differentiation problems. The two EFAs (ALA and LA) cannot be synthesized by human cells and hence have to be obtained from dietary sources. The famous diet model, which is known as the Mediterranean diet, providing oleic acid, LAs, ALAs, antioxidant nutritients, and reduced amounts of saturated fatty acids, resulted in a 70 % reduction in coronary events and 80 % reduction in deaths [25-27].

The lack of EFAs causes several abnormalities and malignant transformations in the human body, such as breast cancer [28], cardiovascular diseases [29], as well as inflammatory and immunological responses [25].

According to our results, the main constituents of all hexane extracts were ALAs and LAs. It is clear that there is a significant correlation between the EFAs and antioxidant activity. Thus, it seems that Cephalaria species, especially C. cilicica, C. lycica, and C. gazipashaensis may be a good dietary source for EFAs and/or effective antioxidants.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors acknowledge TUBITAK 106T433 (TBAG-HD/178) for financial support and also Hygene Center of Izmir for running GC/FID and GC/MS analyses.

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