The dried extract was dissolved in 1.56 ml of methanol and mixed with 40 μl of 2 mM DPPH dissolved in methanol to make up a total volume of 1.6 ml in each polyethylene microfuge tubes. The final solution was allowed to react in dim light for 15 minutes. It was then centrifuged (4000 rpm; 1165 × g, Kubota 2100 Centrifuge, Japan) for five minutes. The absorbance of the supernatant was measured at 517 nm with a UV spectrophotometer (Genesys 10 UV, ThermoSprectronic, USA). The tests were carried out in triplicates. The DPPH radical scavenging activity was calculated with the following formula: