Title screen

[References: p. 97 (29 tit.)]

In recent years, large number of preclinical and clinical studies support the hypothesis of a link between oxidativestress, anxiety and depression. In search of novel sources of antioxidants in the last years, medicinal plants traditionallyused in folk medicine have been extensively studied for their antioxidant activity (AOA). The purpose of this study wasto determine the antioxidant activity of the extracts of medicinal plants Valeriana officinalis, Мelissa officinalis,Crataegus monogyna, Hypericum perforatum, Serratula coronata and their combinations Antistress 1 and Antistress 2,which used as food supplements are recommended for chronic fatigue, anxiety and stress. This was done thoughmeasuring the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC), Hyrdoxyl Radical Averting Capacity (HORAC) and viaelectrochemical method (EM). The most pronounced is AOA of the extracts from M. officinalis(ORAC, 6751.0±214.3 µmol TE/g, HORAC, 1887.8±51.0 µmol GAE/g and EM, 24.901±1.445 ?mol/l.min) and H.perforatum (ORAC, 5950.5±328.4 µmol TE/g, HORAC, 2128.3±200.1 µmol GAE/g and EM, 23.605±1.334?mol/l.min), which could be a result of the high concentration of rosemary acid in the first extract and of flavonoids inthe second. They contribute to the greatest extent of the activity of Antistress 1 and Antistress 2. The conducted studyfor acute toxicity in vivo reported 100 percent survival of experimental animals, indicating that both individual andcombined extracts are non toxic to the tested animals.