Abstract—Plant extract serves as a good source of bioactive compounds and also natural pigment which is potential to be further applied as colourants in food and pharmaceutical products. The aim of this study is to determine antioxidant activities in Syzygium cumini and Ardisia elliptica based on FRAP, ORAC, DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging assays in relation to their total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoids content (TFC) and anthocyanin content (tAcy). The chromatic properties based on colour density (CD), Lightness (L*), hue angle (ho) and chroma value (c) of the selected plants were also determined to evaluate their potential as natural colourants in food. Syzygium cumini showed higher in FRAP value (25.66 mM TEAC), DPPH radical scavenging capacity (EC50=0.22 mg/ml) and TPC (43.64 mg GAE /g) as compared to Ardisia elliptica with 19.60 mM TEAC, EC50=0.24 mg/ml and 41.75 mg GAE /g respectively. Ardisia elliptica exhibited higher in ABTS scavenging activity (4.63 mM TEAC), ORAC value (10.95 μM TEAC), TFC (36.91 mg QE /g) and tAcy (9.97 mg cyanidin / g) as compared to Syzygium cumini with 4.30 mM TEAC, 10.12 μM TEAC, 17.02 mg QE /g and 8.71 mg cyanidin /g repectively. Ardisia elliptica showed higher in CD (1.32 AU), c (32.29) and ho values (24.68o) but lower in L* value (50.69) as compared to the Syzygium cumini with 1.01 AU, 12.10, 10.02o and 75.49 respectively. FRAP, ABTS and EC50 values exhibited very strong correlation with TFC (r²= 0.974, 0.984, 0.921 respectively) and tAcy (r²= 0.953, 0.998, 0.947 respectively). They also exhibited strong correlation with TPC (r²= 0.854, 0.779, 0.749 respectively). ORAC assay exhibited weak correlation with TFC (r²= 0.357) and tAcy (r²= 0.229) but strong correlation with TPC (r²=0.713). Hence, it can be concluded that, TFC and tAcy exhibited very strong relationship with the FRAP, ABTS and DPPH scavenging activities and work as single electron transfer in their mechanism while Ardisia elliptica was better in their chromatic properties as compared to Syzygium cumini.

Index Terms—Anthocyanin, antioxidant, ardisia elliptica, chromatic properties, syzygium cumini.

A. M. Siti-Azima, A. Noriham, and M. Nurhuda are with the Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, 40450 Selangor, Malaysia (e-mail:ctargh@yahoo.com, noriham985@salam.uitm.edu.my, nurhudamanshoor@puncakalam.uitm.edu.my).

Cite:A. M. Siti-Azima, A. Noriham, and M. Nurhuda, "Antioxidant Activities of Syzygium Cumini and Ardisia Elliptica in Relation to Their Estimated Phenolic Compositions and Chromatic Properties," International Journal of Bioscience, Biochemistry and Bioinformatics vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 314-317, 2013.