Antioxidant capacity of the water and ethanol extracts possessed approximately one-fifth of those of a -tocopherol, which is known for its high antioxidant properties. These differences can be explained by the relative purity of the assays, with a
-tocopherol being of high purity (~90%); whereas, both the water and ethanol extracts were of low purity, being crude extracts. Of note was the fact that although the content of saponins in the ethanol extract was four times higher than TPC (Fig. 4), its antioxidant capacity was only slightly higher than that of the water extract.Correlation between saponins and TPC, and antioxidant capacity was assessed, revealing that TPC had a stronger correlation (R2=0.99 and 0.99) with antioxidant capacity than saponins (R2=0.73 and 0.66;Table 3); thus, TPC contributed more to the antioxidant capacity of the extract than did the saponins