Bioactive Substances in Safflower Flowers and Their Applicability in Medicine and Health-Promoting Foods

Table 2

Selected studies of antioxidant activity of substances present in safflower flowers.

Substance	Research object	Type of test	Parameter determined	Tested concentrations	Results	Authors
HSYA	In vitro: tyrosinase, l-DOPA	Tyrosinase activity assay	Change in absorbance per min at 475 nm	0, 0.5, 1.5, and 2.5 mM HSYA	Inhibition of l-DOPA oxidation, reduction of tyrosinase activity	[43]
HSYA	In vitro: INS-1 (rat insulinoma cells)	CAT kit	CAT mRNA level	800 mM HSYA	Increase of SOD, GSH-Px, and CAT levels; decrease of ROS and MDA levels	[44]
		GSH-Px kit	GSH-Px mRNA level
		SOD kit	SOD mRNA level
		MDA kit	MDA level
HSYA	In vivo: mice	Lipid peroxidation MDA assay kit	MDA level	3.5 mg kg^-1 HSYA in 0.1 ml; injection	Control: approx. 21 nmol/mg; DHEA+ HSYA = approx. 22 nmol/mg	[46]
		GSH and GSSG assay kit	GSH/GSSG ratio		Control: approx. 7.7; DHEA+ HSYA = approx. 6.4
		SOD assay kit	SOD activities		Control: approx. 246 U/mg; DHEA+ HSYA = approx. 200 U/mg
		GSH-Px assay kit	Activities of GSH-Px		Control: approx. 600 mU/mg; DHEA+ HSYA = approx. 500 mU/mg
		CAT assay kit	Activities of CAT		Control: approx. 59 U/mg; DHEA+ HSYA = approx. 38 U/mg
HSYA	In vivo: rats	Commercial assay kits, fluorescence spectrophotometry	SOD activity	5 mg/kg HSYA; intraperitoneally injected	;	[47]
			Content of MDA		;
HSYA, carthamine	In vitro: HepG2 cells and 3T3-L1 adipocytes	MDA assay kit	MDA level	200 mg/kg/d SY or HSYA; injection	Increase of SOD activity and MDA level (in a high-fat diet group)	[50]
		SOD assay kit	SOD activities
HSYC	In vitro: H9c2 (rat pheochromocytoma cells)	Antioxidative effects against H2O2-induced cytotoxicity	Cell viability	60 μg/ml HYSC	71% of control; control: vitamin C (1.1 mg/ml)	[52]
Methanol extract of safflower flowers	In vivo: rats	FRAP	Optical density at 700 nm	20 mg/ml, 40 mg/ml, and 80 mg/ml	0.749; 1.155; 1.532 (respectively)	[49]
		DPPH	Absorbance at 517 nm; IC50	0.1 ml solution of different concentrations of extract
Safflower flower extract, HSYA, SYA	In vitro: HuDe (human dermal fibroblasts)	ORAC	Fluorescence emission intensity at 530 nm	Water extract (5%), HYSA, SYA	Total antioxidant activity TE/100 g; Trolox index ; Trolox index	[48]
		DPPH	Absorbance at 517 nm; IC50		IC50 (μg GAE/ml); IC50 (μg HSYA/ml); IC50 (μg SYA/ml)

Symbols: CAT: catalase; DHEA: dehydroepiandrosterone; GSH/GSSG ratio: reduced glutathione/oxidized glutathione; GSH-Px: glutathione peroxidase; HSYA: hydroxysafflor A; HYSB: hydroxysafflor B; HYSC: hydroxysafflor C; MDA: malondialdehyde; SOD: superoxide dismutase; SYA: safflor A.