Aromatic plants from Valsesia (Italy): bioassay-guided isolation of flavonoids with antioxidant activity from Achillea species

Valsesia is an alpine area of Northern Italy whose autochthonous flora has been maintained over the years due to the almost complete absence of imported varieties. This area maintains many of its traditional habits, including the use of wild plants for culinary and pharmaceutical purposes. In a previous work we have investigated some methanolic extracts of different species collected in Valsesia [1]. Among the analysed plants, two species belonging to the Achillea genus ( Achillea distans, Achillea moschata ) have shown significant antioxidant activity. Aim of this work is therefore the identification of pure compounds responsible of the activity of crude extracts. The MeOH extracts have been separated with Sephadex LH-20; 22 and 25 fractions have been obtained from A. distans and A. moschata respectively . The fractions with different TLC profiles were tested for the antioxidant activity, evaluated as scavenging activity of the stable radical DPPH, antioxidant capacity (Cu++ to Cu+ reduction) and LDL oxidation. Subsequently we have separated the selected fractions with HPLC: 5 active compounds were isolated. Acknowledgements : supported by MIUR grant PRIN 2004038183/004, programma 2004 Reference : 1. Vitalini, S. et al. (2006), Phytoter. Research, in press.