Anti-oxidant and Anti-inflammatory Activity of Celery

Celery, the scientific names is apium graveolens and it is medicinal plants that widely used in modern society nowadays. Celery is commercial as celery seed, celery flaks, and vegetable and celery seed oleoresin. Celery is herbaceous plant that growing to a height of 60-90 centimeter. It has leaflets around 2-4. 5 centimeter long and has small white flowers. There are 5 petals in floured tips. In ayurvedic physicians, celery is used to treat people with cold, poor digestion, flu, water retention and various type of arthritis and certain spleen and liver.

Antioxidant is an effective compound that can delay oxidation process under present of reactive oxygen species. It involved mechanism of organisms and attack of free radical. Anti-oxidant has two types, which is endogenous and exogenous. Endogenous anti-oxidant is like an enzymes that control and complete protections of organisms. For exogenous, it can derived from natural sources like flavonoids, anthocyanins, vitamins and mineral compounds. The anti-oxidant activity has been found in apium graveolens and being extracted using DPPH method (2, 2-diphenyl-1- picrylhydrazyl). DPPH is a method that stabilized nitrogen free radical and easy to accept electron to become stable diamagnetic molecule. There are many methodologies to extract antioxidant of celery but DPPH method is chosen due to effective sensitivity, rapidity, simplicity and reproducibility. Phenol is hydrocarbon which one or more hydrogen atoms are replaced by hydroxyl group. Phenol is known as carbolic acid and phenolic family is commonly called as derivatives of phenol. Phenolic compound is compound that have one or more hydroxyl groups bonded at each other in ring shape. Phenolic compounds are present in almost all plants and have more number of chemical, biological and medical studies. The phenolic compound that existing in plants have two types which is hydroxybenzoic and hydroxycinnamic acids.

In plants, it is produced to defend injured plants against pathogens. One of the properties of phenolic compound is antioxidant that can neutralize free radicals and repair damaged cell. It is also can make free radical that pair with electron less harmful. Anti-inflammatory is the property of a substance or treatment that reduces inflammation or swelling.

Celery is a traditional herbs that has been used a long time ago to treat diseases for human. Every part of celery has many benefit for human health. One is it can low blood pressure and help smooth nerves and relieve pain. It is also can flash away the urine and remove kidney stone. Celery also can regulate nervous system by producing combined effect. Recent studies review that Malaysia is one of the oldest rainforest and have more than 1000 species including herbal plant and one of it is celery that have antioxidant activity which is therapeutic properties that contain compounds with antioxidant principles. Herbal medicinal plants in Malaysia is still in development period although the trend of research activities is increased to produce many products herbal based. Malaysia Government already launched Economic Transformation Program (ETP) on October 2010 to develop herbal industry in Malaysia to the next stage. Malaysia Government has initiatives to conduct and focus more on priority herbs and indirectly create the job opportunity for large scale plantation. Due to increasing development of herbal industry, many research have been made related to herbs plants to treat diseases.

Apium Graveolens as known as celery can be found majority in Asia, Europe and Mediterranean. There are many composition in apium graveolens by itself which is magnesium, potassium, sodium, sulfur, vitamin A, Vitamin B, vitamin C, iron and calcium. As a results, Apium Graveolens are used as herbal medicine and treatment a long time ago to treat any diseases like flu, colds, poor digestion, muscle spasms and water retention. One benefit for apium graveolens is treatment of kidney problems. It can be used to increase urine output from the body and manage to remove kidney stones and problems. Nowadays, majority of apium graveolens is used in food, omamental industries and pharmaceutical. The experiment is studied about anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory of apium graveolens extract. Anti-oxidant are compounds that inhibit oxidation. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that can produce free radicals, whereby leading to chain reactions that may damage the cells of organism. There are two type of anti-oxidants which is endogenous anti-oxidants and exogenous anti-oxidants. For endogenous anti-oxidants, it is consequential to prevent against free radical-induced cell damage. The antioxidant enzymes like glutathione peroxidase and catalase metabolize oxidative toxic intermediates and require micronutrient cofactors such as selenium, iron, copper, zinc, and manganese for optimum catalytic activity. It has been suggested that an inadequate dietary intake of these trace minerals may compromise the these antioxidant mechanisms.

Exogenous antioxidants can derive from natural sources like vitamins, flavonoids, anthocyanins, some mineral compounds, but can additionally be synthetic compounds. Damage to cells caused by free radicals is believed to play a central role in the aging process and in disease progression. Antioxidants are our first line against free radical damage, and are critical for maintaining optimum health and wellbeing. Due to many factors can contribute to oxidative, stress, individual assessment of susceptibility becomes paramount. Free radicals are electrically charged molecules, and they have an unpaired electron, which causes them to seek out and capture electrons from other substances in order to neutralize themselves. The initial attack causes the free radical to become neutralized, another free radical is composed in the process, causing a chain reaction to occur. And until subsequent free radicals are deactivated, thousands of free radical reactions can occur within seconds of the initial reaction. Antioxidants are capable of stabilizing, or deactivating free radical. Antioxidants are absolutely critical for maintaining optimal cellular and systemic health. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) is a term which encompasses all highly reactive, oxygen-containing molecules, including free radicals.

All are capable of reacting with membrane lipids, nucleic acids, proteins and enzymes, and other minute molecules, resulting in cellular damage. DPPH is a stable free radical that accepts an electron or hydrogen radical to become a stable diamagnetic molecule, which is widely used to investigate radical scavenging activity. In DPPH radical scavenging assay, antioxidant reacts with DPPH, and convert it to yellow colored α, α-biphenyl-β-picryl hydrazine. The degree of discoloration designates the radical scavenging potential of the antioxidant activities. In this test, the ethanol extract of A. graveolens components exhibited profound antioxidant activities. Consequently, the presence of such compounds may be responsible for the antioxidant activity found in the ethanol extract. Luteolin and supplemental flavonoids have been shown to reduce the relinquishment of reactive oxygen species and to increment expression of enzymes (superoxide dismutase) that bulwark against oxidative damage thereby displaying antioxidant properties. In integration, the flavonoids apigenin and luteolin exhibit high biological activity and pronounced anti –inflammatory effects. Recently, analyzed that the alcoholic extract of celery seed and phthalide dimer isolated from this extract inhibited Helicobacter pylori in vitro. These pharmacological effects suggest that A. graveolens may be potentially utilized in therapeutic applications for the treatment of a wide range of inflammatory and microbial infections.