Chemical Characterization and Determination of the Antioxidant Properties of Phenolic Compounds in Three Scutellaria sp. Plants Grown in Colombia

Plants of the genus Scutellaria (Lamiaceae) have a wide variety of bioactive secondary metabolites with diverse biological properties, e.g., anti-inflammatory, antiallergenic, antioxidant, antiviral, and antitumor activities. The chemical composition of the hydroethanolic extracts, obtained from dried plants of S. incarnata, S. coccinea, and S. ventenatii × S. incarnata, was determined by UHPLC/ESI-Q-Orbitrap-MS. The flavones were found in a higher proportion. Baicalin and dihydrobaicalein-glucuronide were the major extract components in S. incarnata (287.127 ± 0.005 mg/g and 140.18 ± 0.07 mg/g), in S. coccinea (158.3 ± 0.34 mg/g and 51.20 ± 0.02 mg/g), and in S. ventenatii × S. incarnata (186.87 ± 0.01 mg/g and 44.89 ± 0.06 mg/g). The S. coccinea extract showed the highest antioxidant activity in the four complementary techniques employed to evaluate all extracts: ORAC (3828 ± 3.0 µmol Trolox®/g extract), ABTS+• (747 ± 1.8 µmol Trolox®/g extract), online HPLC-ABTS+• (910 ± 1.3 µmol Trolox®/g extract), and β-carotene (74.3 ± 0.8 µmol Trolox®/g extract).