Oxygen species scavenging activity of phenolic extracts from hawthorn fresh plant organs and pharmaceutical preparations.

Different extracts of fresh vegetative and reproductive organs from Crataegus monogyna harvested during a whole season and from some pharmaceutical hawthorn preparations exhibit in vitro antioxidant activities using three different models of oxygen reactive species generation (superoxide anion, hydrogen peroxide and hypochlorous acid). All the tested samples show low IC50 values, the most efficient being fresh young leaves, fresh floral buds and pharmaceutical dried flowers. The activities seem to be especially bound to the total phenolic proanthocyanidin and flavonoid contents.