New Antioxidant Sources; Tinged Autumnal Leaves of Maple and Cherry Trees

Living systems constantly suffer from atmospheric reactive oxygen species and also produce inevitably them by the course of metabolism. Therefore, antioxidants play important roles in protecting the systems from various diseased caused by them. In this study, we investigated various tinged autumnal leaves as antioxidant sources. Among the, the red leaf extracts of Acer Palmatum THUNBERG.(Aceraceae: maple tree) and Prunus Donarioum Sieb. Var. spontanea Makino(Rosaceae : cherry trees) showed the highest anti-oxidativities. The major antioxidants in their red leaves were isolated and identified as vitexin from maple leaves and isoscutellarein-4'-O-$\beta$-glucopyranoside from cherry leaves. Finally, we evaluated the efficacy of skin care products containing the extracts by human use study. As a result, the tinged leaves of maple and cherry trees were evaluated as good antioxidant sources on the bases of antioxidativities, cytotoxicities, cell proliferation effects and human use study.