Paper Title
Selected Food Supplements And Their Total Flavonoids, Total Phenolics And Vitamin C As Measures Of Effectiveness Against Oxidative Stress

Abstract
Food supplements have become a part of consumer market preferences over the past years mainly as alternative medicine and as source of nutrients that contributes to overall body health and vigor. The present investigation has been carried out to evaluate and compare the antioxidant activities based on the levels of the total flavonoids, total phenolics, and vitamin C of ten selected food supplements. The food supplements included in this study are labeled as ACN, BME, CSH, DTH, EAP, FNC, GYK, HAV, IPL, and JGP. Supplement ACN is derived from a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and herbs; Supplement BME is from mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana); Supplement CSH is made from herbal plants and ginseng roots; Supplement DTH obtained solely from the inner bark of the Red Lapacho tree (Tabebuia heptophylla); Supplement EAP is a blend of ampalaya (Momordica charantia), banaba (Lagerstroemia speciosa) and luyang dilaw (Curcuma longa); Supplement FNC is prepared from malunggay (Moringa oleifera); Supplement GYK is derived from blue green algae, ampalaya (Momordica charantia); malunggay (Moringa oleifera); sambong (Lumae balsamifera); garlic (Allium sativum); Supplement HAV is a combination of variety of fruits and vegetables; Supplement IPL is derived solely from yellow trumpet tree (Tabebuias tree); and supplement JGP is made from fennel (Foeniculum vulgare); ginger (Zingiber officinale-rhizome); mustard seed (Brassica alba) and garlic (Allium sativum). The results for total flavonoids ranged from 10.05 to 96.75 milligrams quercetin per gram of dried material with the highest value for Supplement BME and lowest for Supplement ACN. The results for total phenolics varied from 2.84 to 37.71 mg GAE per g dried material with the highest value for Supplement BME and the lowest for Supplement CSH. The vitamin C contents varied from 3.52 to 47.86 mg ascorbic acid per g dried material with the highest value for Supplement HAV and the lowest for Supplement IPL. The overall results demonstrated that these selected food supplements are rich sources of natural antioxidants at varying degrees and may be promising against various types of chronic and degenerative diseases caused by oxidative stress. Keywords— Food Supplement, Antioxidant, Free Radicals, Phytochemicals, Total Flavonoids, Total Phenols.