Antioxidant, Phytochemical and Enzymatic Characteristics of Selected Medicinal Plants from the Republic of Korea: A commentary

Recently, there has been significant interest in the literature that is orientated toward the compositional analysis of traditional medicinal plants from around the world. This interest has been predominately fueled by consumer demands toward naturally derived remedies and the potential efficacy of bioactive compounds identified in medicinal plants which could be developed into pharmaceuticals or nutraceuticals. In the latest issue of Exploratory Research and Hypothesis in Medicine, Phull et al. published “Antioxidant Potential, Urease and Acetylcholine Esterase Inhibitory Activity and Phytochemical Analysis of Selected Medicinal Plants from the Republic of Korea”.1 The authors of this manuscript identified an essential need for comprehensive compositional information related to the use of the plants as a part of traditional Korean medicine.2 In particular, the authors describe the analysis of methanolic extracts from the barks of 20 different medicinal plants that were purchased from a commercial supplier. Phytochemical screening (alkaloid, saponin, cardiac glycoside, and terpenoid content), phenolics and flavonoids assays (total phenolic content and total flavonoid content), antioxidant activity potential (2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl-hydrate (DPPH) free radical and total antioxidant capacity assays) and enzyme inhibitory activities (acetylcholine esterase and urease inhibition assays) were performed on 20 plant methanolic extracts.