Abstract: In order to study the effect of different processing methods on Polygonatum odoratum, the yield and antioxidant activities of polysaccharides, ethanol extracts, crude total flavonoids and water extracts were determined and compared. The results showed that the yield of polysaccharides, ethanol extracts of alcohol-steam P.odoratum and crude total flavonoids, water extracts of honey-steam P.odoratum were the higher than un-processed one, which were improved by 43.86%, 29.53%, 49.46% and 34.66%, respectively. The polysaccharides and water extracts of alcohol-steam P.odoratum exhibited the best DPPH scavenging activity at the same concentration than other samples with the IC₅₀/DPPH=0.345±0.019 and 0.441±0.022 mg·mL^-1, respectively. The crude total flavonoids and ethanol extracts of honey-steam P.odoratum exhibited the best DPPH scavenging activity at the same concentration than other samples with the IC₅₀/DPPH=0.047±0.011 and 0.199±0.036 mg·mL^-1, respectively. The DPPH scavenging activity of crude total flavonoids of honey-steam P.odoratum was higher (90.29%) than other extracts at the concentration of 1 mg·mL^-1, which was higher than the rutin and quercetin at the concentration of 0.05 mg·mL^-1. Both processing methods improved the total reductive ability of polysaccharides, crude total flavonoids and water extracts, while reduced the total reductive ability of ethanol extracts.

Key words: Polygonatum odoratum, honey-steam processing, alcohol-steam processing, yield of extracts, antioxidant activities