Antioxidant activity of the extract fractions from leaves, stems, roots and flowers of Cirsium pendulum Fisch. was investigated. The results showed the greatest antioxidant activities in leaves by Rancimat, TBA and DPPH methods. Extracts of common thistle plants dose-dependently increased DPPH free radical scavenging activity, The extract from flowers and its hexane fraction showed the strongest antioxidant activity. HPLC analysis showed that BuOH fraction of the leaves had the highest amount of antioxidant chlorogenic and p-coumaric acids at 5.38 and 9.71 mg 100 g-1, respectively. It implies that common thistle plants had potent antioxidant activity, and their activities were differently exhibited depending on plant part and solvent fraction.

• Sang-Uk Chon
• Hee-Ock Boo
• Sook-Young Lee