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Journal of Wood Science

Official Journal of the Japan Wood Research Society

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Evaluation of biological activities of extracts from 22 African tropical wood species

Journal of Wood Science volume 55, pages 225–229 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Heartwoods of 22 African tropical wood species were extracted with methanol and the contents of total phenolic compounds in these extracts were measured. Three bioassays were conducted to evaluate the antioxidant activity, tyrosinase inhibitory activity, and antifungal activity of the methanol extracts. The results indicated that the extracts from 13 species exhibited high antioxidant potential, and their inhibitory concentrations that caused 50% scavenging of the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical (IC50) were less than 10 μg/ml. The crude extract from Cylicodiscus gabunensis showed the highest antioxidant activity, and was even higher than that of (+)-catechin, which is known as a potent antioxidant. There was a good correlation between the antioxidant activity and the content of total phenolic compounds, indicating that phenolic compounds played a predominant role in the antioxidant property of the wood extracts. Among all 22 species, only 1 species, Milicia excelsa, contained extractives that showed very high tyrosinase inhibitory activity. The extracts from 9 species showed high antifungal activity. No consistent relationship was observed between the tyrosinase inhibitory activity or antifungal activity and the content of total phenolics in the extracts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto, 33 Willcocks Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3B3, Canada

    Zeen Huang

  2. Department of Biomass Chemistry, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8687, Japan

    Koh Hashida, Rei Makino & Seiji Ohara

  3. Forestry Division, Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8686, Japan

    Fumio Kawamura

  4. Systematic Forest and Forest Products, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, 812-8581, Japan

    Kuniyoshi Shimizu & Ryuichiro Kondo

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  1. Zeen Huang
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  2. Koh Hashida
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  3. Rei Makino
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  4. Fumio Kawamura
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  5. Kuniyoshi Shimizu
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  6. Ryuichiro Kondo
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  7. Seiji Ohara
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Correspondence to Zeen Huang.

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Huang, Z., Hashida, K., Makino, R. et al. Evaluation of biological activities of extracts from 22 African tropical wood species. J Wood Sci 55, 225–229 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10086-008-1024-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10086-008-1024-y

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