Sword Brake fern (Pteris ensiformis Burm.) is one of the most common ingredients of traditional herbal drinks in Taiwan. In an effort to identify antioxidants from the aqueous extract of Sword Brake fern (SBF), the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity-guided isolation was employed. Three new compounds, kaempferol 3-O-α-l-rhamnopyranoside-7-O-[α-d-apiofuranosyl-(1-2)-β-d-glucopyranoside] (1), 7-O-caffeoylhydroxymaltol 3-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (3) and hispidin 4-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (4), together with five known compounds, kaempferol 3-O-α-l-rhamnopyranosid-7-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (2), caffeic acid (5), 5-O-caffeoylquinic acid (6), 3,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid (7) and 4,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid (8) were isolated and determined on the basis of spectroscopic analyses. HPLC with UV detector was further employed to analyze the content of each compound in SBF based on the retention time by comparison with isolated pure compounds. It was found that the most abundant phenolic compound was compound 3, followed by compounds 7 and 4. The di-O-caffeoylquinic acids (7 and 8) have the strongest DPPH scavenging potential with IC50 around 10 μM and the highest Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) about 2 mM. This data indicates that SBF is rich in phenolic antioxidants.
