In this study, an online antioxidant assay based on HPLC-ABTS was mainly developed for screening the antioxidants of flavonoids from Astragali Radix (AR), and comparing the antioxidant capacity between traditional decoction pieces (TDP) of AR and cell wall-broken decoction pieces (CDP) of AR. The experimental results showed that the overall antioxidant capacity of CDP of AR was about twice as much as that of TDP of AR, which was specifically expressed as the antioxidant capacity of the screened antioxidants extracted from CDP was equivalent to 1.9-5.1 times that of those extracted from TDP, and three antioxidants were successfully screened, which were calycosin-7-O-β-D-glucoside, calycosin, and formononetin. The method established in this study is characterized by high efficiency and accuracy, which can simultaneously accomplish the screening of antioxidant components and the comparison of antioxidant capacity between samples, and provides a new method for the quality evaluation of AR from the perspective of antioxidant activity.
Keywords: Astragali Radix; HPLC‐ABTS; antioxidant; cell wall‐broken decoction pieces.
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