Characterization of the phenolic and antioxidant profiles of selected culinary herbs and spices: caraway, turmeric, dill, marjoram and nutmeg

Abstract

Culinary herbs and spices have long been considered essentially as flavor enhancers or preservatives, with little attention given to their potential health-promoting properties. Nevertheless, recent research has shown them to be significant dietary sources of bioactive phenolic compounds. Despite noteworthy efforts performed in recent years to improve our knowledge of their chemical composition, a detailed phenolic profile of these plant-based products is still lacking. In the present work, antioxidant activities and phenolic composition of five herbs and spices, namely caraway, turmeric, dill, marjoram and nutmeg, have been studied. The use of liquid chromatography coupled to LTQ-Drbitrap mass spectrometry enabled the identification of up to 42 phenolic compounds. To the best of our knowledge, two of them, apigenin-C-hexoside-C-pentoside and apigenin-C-hexoside-C-hexoside have not been previously reported in turmeric. Qualitative and quantitative differences were observed in polyphenol profiles, with the highest phenolic content found in caraway. Multivariate statistical treatment of the results allowed the detection of distinctive features among the studied herbs and spices.Keywords: antioxidant capacity; culinary herbs; HPLC-ESI-LTQ-Drbitrap; polyphenols; spices.Pratical Application: Culinary herbs and spices have been used as preservative agents to extend the shelf-life of food and also to enhance the flavor and organoleptic properties of different types of food. Interest in the bioactive phenolic compounds of these plant-based products is currently growing due to their health benefits. The aim of the current study was to extensively analyse the phenolic profile of dill, nutmeg, marjoram, turmeric and caraway to help industries to produce spices with higher content of polyphenols.

Study and evaluation of antimicrobial activity and antioxidant capacity of dry extract and fractions of leaves of Raphanus sativus var. oleiferus Metzg.

“…The ion of m/z 593 ([M-H] -) showed a base peak of m/z 447, which is likely to be due to the loss of a sugar of mass 146 (6-deoxy-hexose) (WOLFENDER et al, 1992;RANA et al, 2015). The peak with m/z 301 is the aglycone quercetin (SUN et al, 2007;DEVARAJI;KRISHNA;VISWANATHA, 2011;GATES;LOPES, 2012;RANA et al, 2015;VALLVERDÚ-QUERALT et al, 2015), formed after the loss of sugars. In the MS 2 spectrum the ion of m/z 577 ([M-H] -) observed with a base peak at m/z 431 and another peak at m/z 285 may result from the loss of one and two sugar molecules of mass 146 (6-deoxy-hexose), respectively (WOLFENDER et al, 1992;ZANUTTO et al, 2013;RANA et al, 2015).…”

Effect of jasmonic acid and yeast extract elicitation on low-molecular antioxidants and antioxidant activity of marjoram (Origanum majorana L.)

“…Due to its high content of antioxidants, marjoram has antioxidant properties, which largely determine the health-promoting value of this herb (Vallverdú--Queralt et al, 2015). It is well known that elicitation may affect the antioxidant capacity of plant food .…”

Extraction optimization of polyphenols, antioxidant and xanthine oxidase inhibitory activities from Prunus salicina Lindl.

“…Plant polyphenols play important roles in the prevention of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative disorders, cancer, type II diabetes and osteoporosis (Scalbert et al, 2005). Therefore, plant polyphenols have become one of hot spots in recent years, and they have been widely applied in the manufacturing of various functional products, such as colorant or a functional ingredient, and in the nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries (Vallverdú-Queralt et al, 2015;Pérez-Jiménez et al, 2010). Plum (Prunus salicina Lindl.)…”