# Antioxidative and Photoprotective Activity of _Pinus nigra_, _Pinus strobus_ and _Pinus mugo_
## 3 Results  
Figure 1 presents the antioxidant activity of _Pinus strobus_ alcoholic extracts evaluated using the DPPH method. The higher activity was observed for extracts in diluted alcohols--they were comparable in the same solvents regardless of the extraction time. The highest activity of 3.85 \(\pm\) 0.02 mg trolox/g raw material (TEAC) was found for 70% ethanol used as an extractant after 30 min of extraction and for 70% methanol after the same extraction time (3.81 \(\pm\) 0.07 TEAC). The lower activity was found for extracts in undiluted alcohols; the lowest activity was observed for extracts in undiluted n-propanol (1.24 \(\pm\) 0.10 TEAC) and undiluted isopropanol (1.26 \(\pm\) 0.10 TEAC), both after 30 min of extraction. Figure 2 presents the antioxidant activity of _Pinus mugo_ alcoholic extracts evaluated with the DPPH method. Similarly to _Pinus strobus_ extracts, the higher activity was observed for extracts in diluted alcohols--they were comparable in the same solvents regardless of the extraction time. The highest activity of 14.52 \(\pm\) 0.26 TEAC was found for extracts in 40% ethanol after 15 min of extraction and in 40% methanol after 30 min of extraction (14.49 \(\pm\) 0.46 TEAC). The lower activity was found for extracts in undiluted alcohols; the lowest activity was observed in extracts in undiluted n-propanol (2.13 \(\pm\) 0.09 TEAC) after 60 min of extraction and in undiluted isopropanol (2.37 \(\pm\) 0.32 TEAC) both after 30 min of extraction. Figure 1: Mean antioxidant activity of _Pinus strobus_ alcoholic extracts evaluated using DPPH method and expressed as TEAC (mg trolox/g raw material). Vertical lines represent standard deviations (SD). Different letters indicate significant differences between the extracts prepared in the same alcohol of different concentrations in individual extraction time (_p_ < 0.05). The antioxidant activity of _Pinus nigra_ alcoholic extracts determined by using the DPPH method is presented in Figure 3. Similarly to _Pinus strobus_ and _Pinus mugo_ extracts, the higher activity was found for extracts in diluted alcohols--they were comparable in the same solvents regardless of the extraction time. However, higher activity was observed in the extract obtained after one hour of extraction. The highest antioxidant potential of 3.74 \(\pm\) 0.01 TEAC was found for 40% methanol used as a solvent after 60 min of extraction and for 40% n-propanol and ethanol after 60 min of extraction--3.62 \(\pm\) 0.03 and 3.59 \(\pm\) 0.13 TEAC, respectively. The lower activity was found for extracts in undiluted alcohols; the lowest one was observed for extracts in undiluted isopropanol (0.43 \(\pm\) 0.16 TEAC) after 15 min of extraction and in undiluted n-propanol (0.55 \(\pm\) 0.08 TEAC) after 30 min of extraction. Statistically significant differences were found between the antioxidant activities evaluated with the DPPH method between _Pinus nigra_ and _Pinus mugo_ extracts (_p_ < 0.001). Figure 4 presents the antioxidant activity of _Pinus strobus_ alcoholic extracts evaluated using the ABTS method. The higher activity was observed for extracts in diluted alcohols--they were comparable in the same solvents regardless of the extraction time. The antioxidant activity of extracts in undiluted alcohols increase in some cases with the extension of extraction time. The highest activity of 19.34 \(\pm\) 0.10 TEAC was found for 40% ethanol used as a solvent after 15 min of extraction and for 70% methanol after the same extraction time (17.56 \(\pm\) 0.62 TEAC). The lower activity was found for extracts in undiluted alcohols; the lowest was observed for extracts in undiluted isopropanol (1.41 \(\pm\) 0.28 TEAC) and in undiluted n-propanol (2.99 \(\pm\) 1.12 TEAC), both after 15 min of extraction. The antioxidant activities evaluated with the ABTS method were significantly higher than the respective activities determined by the DPPH method (_p_ < 0.001).