Metabolic reactions, pollution and other environmental factors are cause of production of free radicals to human body. These free radicals may lead to chronic diseases including cancer, diabetes, obesity and others. Antioxidants present in our diet have the capacity to scavenge free radicals to reduce their damaging effects. Food components play vital role in controlling such diseases. Ginger (Zingiberofficinale), Mint (Mentha spicata) and lemon (Citrus limon) are important food ingredients used in treatment of numerous diseases. They are utilized in form of different formulations and teas; hence this study aimed to find out the antioxidant activity of all these ingredients individually and in combination. DPPH free radical scavenging assay was used for this purpose. Different concentrations of extracts (ranging from 10 to 100 micrograms per milliliters) of their samples were tested for free radical scavenging activity. Mixture of ginger, mint and lemon had superior scavenging activity showing significant difference followed by the Lemon. Altogether, our findings suggest that mixture of ginger, mint and lemon extracts possessed promising natural antioxidant activity for the reduction of oxidative stresses with potential applications in the pharmaceutical-food industry with reduce side effects.

Keywords: Antioxidant; diseases; Ginger; Mint; lemon; scavenging; oxidative stresses