Investigation of the Antioxidant Activities and Determination of the Phenol Content of Fractional Extracts of Iranian Medicinal Mushroom Phellinus torulosus

Phellinu s Quel is a large and widely distributed genus of the family Hymenochaetaceae under the class of Basidiomycetes with more than 359 species. The Phellinu s species have anticancer, antioxidant and antibacterial effects. Hitherto, 12 Phellinus species have been reported from the north of Iran. Due to their great medicinal effects and lack of investigation on Iranian species, this study was performed to investigate the host dispersal behaviour, macro- and micro-morphological properties of the species, and antioxidant activities. using the total methanol extract and it’s fractional extracts (chloroform, butanol and water extracts). In this experimental study, the macro- and micro-morphological properties of the species were determined using the total methanol extract and it’s fractional extracts (chloroform, butanol and water extracts). The antioxidant assays were then performed. The radical scavenging capacity of fractional extracts of this fungus were evaluated by using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging activity and Ferric reducing-antioxidant power (FRAP) assays. Also, the total phenol content (TPC) of each extract was measured using Folin-Ciocalteau method. The results indicated that the total methanol extract showed a significant antioxidant activity. Further fractionation indicated that the butanol fraction had a stronger activity than the total methanolic extract in both antioxidant assays. The effective concentrations of the different extracts (total methanol, chloroform, butanol and water), for scavenging of 50% of generated radicals (IC50), was 30.87±2.07, 87.22±2.56, 11.98±0.32 and 229.67±0.94 µg/ml, respectively. The results showed that different extracts, especially butanol extract have high antioxidant activities which indicate the presence of active components in this fraction. Considering these great antioxidant effects and its low expense, it is recommended to use this fungus in more clinical trial researches and drug manufacturing industry.