Chemical Characterization and Determination of the Antioxidant Properties of Phenolic Compounds in Three Scutellaria sp. Plants Grown in Colombia.

Plants of the genus Scutellaria (Lamiaceae) have a wide variety of bioactive secondary metabolites with diverse biological properties, e.g., anti-inflammatory, antiallergenic, antioxidant, antiviral, and antitumor activities. The chemical composition of the hydroethanolic extracts, obtained from dried plants of S . incarnata , S . coccinea , and S . ventenatii × S . incarnata , was determined by UHPLC/ESI-Q-Orbitrap-MS. The flavones were found in a higher proportion. Baicalin and dihydrobaicalein-glucuronide were the major extract components in S . incarnata (287.127 ± 0.005 mg/g and 140.18 ± 0.07 mg/g), in S . coccinea (158.3 ± 0.34 mg/g and 51.20 ± 0.02 mg/g), and in S . ventenatii × S . incarnata (186.87 ± 0.01 mg/g and 44.89 ± 0.06 mg/g). The S . coccinea extract showed the highest antioxidant activity in the four complementary techniques employed to evaluate all extracts: ORAC (3828 ± 3.0 µmol Trolox ® /g extract), ABTS +• (747 ± 1.8 µmol Trolox ® /g extract), online HPLC-ABTS +• (910 ± 1.3 µmol Trolox ® /g extract), and β-carotene (74.3 ± 0.8 µmol Trolox ® /g extract).