## 3 Results and Discussion
### Bioactivities  
#### 3.2.1 Antioxidant Activity  
Among many other bioactivities associated with polyphenolic compounds, the antioxidant activity is one of the most reported [35,36] and can be explored for various purposes. The concerns about the increase in neurodegenerative diseases have increased the interest in some of these most promising molecules [29]. In the present work, our main goal was to verify its previous potential for the evaluation of the freshness of the matrix, for further standardization of the extracts and its potential for future research regarding anti-inflammatory drugs or to help in the prevention of degenerative diseases in accordance with its inhibitory activity for the enzyme acetylcholinesterase. Various methodologies were chosen to evaluate this potential, as presented below. One of the most used to obtain preliminary data is the DPPH scavenging assay, which determines the capacity of a compound or group of compounds to stabilize the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical. The amount of extract required to scavene 50% of DPPH solution (and for FRAP reagent) is defined as the IC50 (mg/mL). The antiradical free scavenging radical activity is measured through the stable radical DPPH, which shows the ability of substances present in the extracts to sequester free radicals from the existing medium. The extracts under evaluation showed free radical scavenging activity with EC50 values ranging from 6.79 to 9.93 mg/mL (Figure 6), which are good activities. The hydroethanolic extracts prepared with the EF collected in both locations showed similar results between the analyzed samples. Nevertheless, the data collected presented a decrease in this bioactivity with increasing maturation status. The results could be correlated to the content of phenols and flavonoids quantified in the samples. These first results suggested that _A. dealbeta_ could be a good source of natural antioxidants, which may be used to stabilize free radicals, which induce oxidative stress. The other analysis performed to validate this data was a FRAP (ferric reducing antioxidant power) assay, which measures the ability of antioxidants to reduce the Fe(III)-TPTZ complex to the intensely blue Fe(II)-TPTZ complex in an acidic medium. The antioxidant activity can be measured spectrophotometrically by the change in color of the solution to blue resulting from the ferric to ferrous ion reduction, i.e., Fe(II) to Fe(III), while coordinated by 2,4,6-tris(2-pyridyl)-s-triazine (TPTZ). The data on the ferric reducing potential of the analyzed extracts also indicated better values for the EF extracts in both locations. All other extracts recorded moderate FRAP activity. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c} \hline \hline  & **Site** & **Maturation** & **S \(\times\) M** & **Residual** \\  & **(S)** & **Status (M)** & **S \(\times\) M** & **Residual** \\ \hline TPC (\(\mu\)g gallic acid/mL) & 24.4 *** & 55.5 *** & 11.7 ** & 8.4 \\ TPC EC50 (\(\mu\)g/mL) & 37.4 *** & 27.3 *** & n.s. & 35.3 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* MS—maturation status, EF—early flower, MF—mid flower, LF—late flower; n.s. for \(p>0.05\),
* 0.01 \(<p<0.05\), *
* 0.001 \(<p<0.01\), *  
\end{table} 
Table 1: Percentage of variance obtained in a two-way ANOVA of the total phenol and flavonoid contents of the flowers extracts. The data acquired with the extracts under study are shown in Figure 6.  
Table 2 depicts that the material region harvested was not significant for the FRAP assay; however, the maturation status represented nearly 83% of the total variation in DPPH and nearly 54% for FRAP with a high significance. 2.2 Enzyme Inhibitory Activity (Acetylcholinesteraseerase, Lipase and \(\alpha\)-Glucosidase Enzymes)  
The enzyme inhibitory activity of _A. dealbeta_ flower extracts with different maturation stages was evaluated due to the potential application in drug discovery in different possible applications. The data shown here correlates with the three enzymes studied.