molecules Article Antioxidant Effects and Phytochemical Properties of Seven Taiwanese Cirsium Species Extracts Zi-Wei Zhao 1,† , Hung-Chi Chang 2,†, Hui Ching 3, Jin-Cherng Lien 4 , Hui-Chi Huang 5 and Chi-Rei Wu 5,* 1 The Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan;
[email protected] 2 Department of Golden-Ager Industry Management, College of Management, Chaoyang University of Technology, Taichung 413, Taiwan;
[email protected] 3 Department of Pharmacy, Taichung Hospital, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taichung 404, Taiwan;
[email protected] 4 School of Pharmacy, China Medical University, Taichung 404, Taiwan;
[email protected] 5 Department of Chinese Pharmaceutical Sciences and Chinese Medicine Resources, College of Pharmacy, China Medical University, Taichung 404, Taiwan;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +886-4-2205-3366 (ext. 5506) † These authors contributed equally to this work. Abstract: In the present investigation, we compared the radical-scavenging activities and phenolic contents of seven Taiwanese Cirsium species with a spectrophotometric method. We further an- alyzed their phytochemical profiles with high-performance liquid chromatography–photodiode array detection (HPLC–DAD). We found that the flower part of Cirsium japonicum var. australe (CJF) showed the best radical-scavenging activities against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,20-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS), and the hypochlorite ion, for which the equivalents were 6.44 ± 0.17 mg catechin/g, 54.85 ± 0.66 mmol Trolox/g and 418.69 ± 10.52 mmol Trolox/g respectively.