Young Green Barley Leaves As Natural Antioxidants: Principles, Concepts, Bioassay

Generally, young plant parts are characterized by increased contents of some vitamins, provitamins, antioxidants, and other bioactive substances. Barley grass contains significant quantities of calcium, iron, magnesium, ?-carotene and chlorophyll. Also, young green barley leaves are known to possess potent pharmacological properties, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimutagenic and antiallergic activities. This work was conducted on the powder produced from young green barley leaves to evaluate their chemical and biological effects. Chemical composition and bioactive components of young green barley leaves, green magma and freeze-dried powders were determined. The efficiency of freeze-dried powder from young green barley leaves at different concentrations in lowering the hypercholesterolemia was carried out. Finally, it could be concluded that the addition of powder from young green barley leaves improve the liver and kidneys functions in hypercholesterolemic rats. Also, this product can be used as a lowering cholesterol factor and also is considered a source of antioxidants.