Research Information System
Industrial Crops and Products, vol.38, no.1, pp.115-123, 2012 (SCI-Expanded)
In the current work, the acetone, ethyl acetate, and ethanol extracts and essential oils of the twigs and needles of five Turkish Pinus species; P. brutia, P. halepensis, P. nigra, P. pinea, and P. sylvestris along with pycnogenol (the bark extract of P. pinaster) were examined for their inhibitory effects against acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) at 200μgmL -1. Their antioxidant activity was tested using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and N,N-dimethyl-p-phenylendiamine (DMPD) radical scavenging, metal-chelation, and ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays. Total phenol and flavonoid contents of the extracts were determined by Folin-Ciocalteau and AlCl 3 reagents, respectively. GC-MS technique was applied for compositional profile of the essential oils of the tested species. Accordingly, the best AChE and BChE inhibition was caused by the twig essential oil (83.91±3.95%) and the needle ethanol extract (82.47±5.57%) of P. halepensis, respectively. Pycnogenol also caused a remarkable inhibition against AChE (63.33±0.22%) and BChE (83.67±0.22%). The extracts and essential oils usually showed a strong activity in the antioxidant assays. Pycnogenol exhibited a potent antioxidant effect and had the richest total phenol content. In the essential oils, α- and β-pinene were identified the major components. These results reveal that the Pinus species and pycnogenol are the potential sources of active metabolites with cholinesterase and antioxidant properties. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.