<i>In vitro</i> Antioxidant Activity in Seven Selected Local Ghanaian Spices and an Artificial Spice, Shrimp Cube

Many spices have been shown to have harmless sources of natural antioxidants and have been of great help in preventing the pathological effects caused by free radicals and their associated oxidative stress.The total antioxidant activity, total phenolic content and flavonoid content in ethanol extract of seven (7) local spices (clove, rosemary, anise seeds, calabash nutmeg, Ethiopian pepper, bayleaf and fermented African locust beans) and one artificial spice in Ghana; (shrimp cube) were determined in vitro by the 1, 1 diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging assay, the Folin-Ciocalteau and aluminium chloride colorimetric methods respectively.The total phenolic content estimated for each spice decreased in the order clove > rosemary > bayleaf > anise seeds > calabash nutmeg > Ethiopian pepper > fermented African locust beans > shrimp cube with a statistically significant p-value of 0.003.The total flavonoid contents decreased significantly in the order clove >calabash nutmeg > rosemary > Ethiopian pepper > bayleaf > anise seeds > fermented African locust beans > shrimp cube (p= 0.002).The free radical scavenging activity of the spices also decreased significantly in the order clove > rosemary > bayleaf > anise seeds > Ethiopian pepper > calabash nutmeg > fermented African locust > shrimp cube (p=0.040).Statistically significant linear correlations were observed between total phenolic content and DPPH scavenging activity (r = 0.976, p=0.000) and flavonoid content and DPPH scavenging activity (r =0.693, p=0.003).These findings suggest that local plant-based spices are available sources of natural antioxidants than the shrimp cube.Of the seven local spices analysed, cloves had the highest antioxidant activity.Future studies should investigate the antioxidant activity of these spices in vivo.