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Lecanoric acid, a secondary lichen substance with antioxidant properties from Umbilicaria antarctica in maritime Antarctica (King George Island)

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Abstract

Eight lichen species, Cetraria aculeata, Cladonia furcata, Pseudephebe pubescens, Sphaerophorus globosus, Stereocaulon alpinum, Umbilicaria antarctica, Usnea antarctica and Usnea aurantiacoatra, were collected from King George Island, maritime Antarctica, for the evaluation of antioxidant activities. Anti-linoleic acid peroxidation activity, free radical scavenging activity, reducing power and superoxide anion scavenging activity were assessed of methanol and acetone extract of the lichens in vitro. Extract of Umbilicaria antarctica, Cladonia furcata, Sphaerophorus globosus and Usnea antarctica were found to have strong in vitro antioxidant properties. In general, acetone extract exhibited stronger activities than methanol extract. The activity-guided bioautographic TLC and HPLC analysis demonstrated that lecanoric acid was the main antioxidant compound in the acetone extract of Umbilicaria antarctica, the most potent antioxidant lichen species among the test species. The results suggested that several Antarctic lichens and their substances can be used as novel bioresources of natural antioxidants.

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Acknowledgments

We thank three anonymous referees for their valuable comments and suggestions for improvement of our manuscript. This work was supported by a grant from Korea National Research Resource Center Program (Grant R21-2007-000-10033-0) and also by P-Science Program (R01-2006-000-11055-0), Korean Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF), Korea.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Korean Lichen Research Institute, Sunchon National University, 315 Mae-gok dong, Suncheon, Jeonnam, 540-742, Korea

    Heng Luo, Jung A Kim, Jae Sung Jung, Young Jin Koh & Jae-Seoun Hur

  2. Department of Biological Production, Faculty of Bioresource Sciences, Akita Prefectural University, Akita, 010-0195, Japan

    Yoshikazu Yamamoto

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  1. Heng Luo
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  2. Yoshikazu Yamamoto
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  3. Jung A Kim
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  4. Jae Sung Jung
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  6. Jae-Seoun Hur
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Correspondence to Jae-Seoun Hur.

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Luo, H., Yamamoto, Y., A Kim, J. et al. Lecanoric acid, a secondary lichen substance with antioxidant properties from Umbilicaria antarctica in maritime Antarctica (King George Island). Polar Biol 32, 1033–1040 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-009-0602-9

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