Abstract

Ribes fasciculatum has been traditionally used as febrifuge, diuretic and antidote against urushiol in Korea, although its biological functions have not been well studied. In this study, we determined the anti-oxidant activities, anti-microbial activities and α-glucosidase inhibitory effects of methanol extract and the fractions of R. fasciculatum stem from Chuncheon and Jeju in South Korea. The highest anti-oxidant activity obtained by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical-scavenging assay and reducing power assay was found in the EtOAc fraction from Jeju-MeOH extract, which contained the highest level of total phenolic compounds compared to the other fractions. In addition, EtOAc fraction from Chuncheon-MeOH extract exhibited higher inhibitory activities against α-glucosidase (IC₅₀ = 4.38 ug/ml) compared to the IC₅₀ of the EtOAc fraction from Jeju-MeOH extract. Chuncheon-MeOH extract showed antimicrobial activities against Staphylococus aureus,Escherichia coli and Pichia jadinii. Although, extracts obtained from two regions contained different biological activities, these in vitro studies indicate that this plant can likely be a potential medicinal plant resource for developing effective dietary health supplements.

Key words: Anti-oxidant activity, anti-microbial activity, alpha glucosidase inhibitory effect,Ribes fasciculatum.