Determination of antioxidant activities of pinus species growing in Gaziantep

In this study, it was determined antioxidant activities, essential oil compounds and total phenolic contents of four different Pinus species growing in Gaziantep. Methanol and essential oil extracts were screened for antioxidant activities by using DPPH, metal chelating and power reducing assays. As a result of analysis, methanol extracts was exhibited more antioxidant activities than essential oils.The methanol extract of Pinus halepensis showed the highest activity with value of 93.30 % at concentration of 1.0 mg/ml in DPPH assay. Also, this plant exhibited the highest activity in power reducing assay (0.914 nm at concentration of 0.8 mg/ml). The essential oil of Pinus brutia showed the highest activity with value of 94.30 % in metal chelating assay. The highest total phenolic concent was calculated in metanol extract of Pinus nigra (303.3 mg GAE/g). Moreover, the essential oil was analysed by GC-MS. According to result of GC-MS, ß- pinene (% 40,03), ß-caryophyllene (% 25,98), ?- Pinene (% 34,45) and Limonene (% 40,73) were determined as main components in essential oils of P. brutia, P. halepensis, P. nigra and Pinus pinea, respectively. We can say that these species may be new natural antioxidant sources.