Abstract:

The fruit shell of Camellia oleifera is a by-product in extracting oil from the frnit. The by-product is usually burnt. In this paper, antioxidant activity of extracts from the fruit shell was investigated to offer further information to its development and utilization.Crude water extract of the fruit shell was used as raw material,and three fractions were obtained by extracting it with ethyl acetate and butanol.The total polyphenol contents of the crude extract and the three fractions were evaluated by Folin-Ciocalteu method. With ascorbate (Vc) used as the control, the antioxidant activity was determined by DPPH assay, TEAC assay, FRAP assay and T-AOC assay,respectively. The results showed that the extracts from the fruit shell had strong antioxidant activity. The four assay methods produced the same results. Their antioxidant activity was ranked in an order of ethyl acetate fraction＞butanol fraction＞crude extract＞water fraction.Moreover,the antioxidant activity of extracts were correlated with total polyphenol content.

Key words: fruit shell of Camellia oleifera, antioxidant, colorimetry, polyphenol, correlation