Carnosic Acid and Carnosol: Analytical Methods for Their Determination in Plants, Foods and Biological Samples

Abstract

Among the various phytochemicals, which are present in Lamiaceae plants, carnosic acid and carnosol stand out. Carnosic acid is a phenolic diterpene carrying two phenolic hydroxyl groups and a carboxyl group, while carnosol carries a lactone moiety in addition to phenolic hydroxyls. Both these phenolic diterpenes exhibit interesting biological properties, such as antioxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective activities. In this review, we summarize the existing analytical methods for the determination of carnosic acid and carnosol, primarily in plants, but also in foods and biological samples. Due to the biological importance of carnosic acid and carnosol, a variety of analytical methods, including high-performance liquid chromatography–ultra violet (HPLC–UV), liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) and capillary electrophoresis (CE), were developed for their determination. In addition, we discuss the extraction methods applied for their isolation from plants and in brief the bioactivities of these phytochemicals.

Enrichment of Olive Oils with Natural Bioactive Compounds from Aromatic and Medicinal Herbs: Phytochemical Analysis and Antioxidant Potential

“…Bibliographic data suggest that specific phenolic compounds that have been established to migrate from the plant material to the olive oil may exhibit additional biofunctional properties, apart from their antioxidant activity. Reports mention the anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor properties of the flavones apigenin [ 25 ], genkwanin [ 26 ], luteolin [ 27 ], the flavanone eriodictyol [ 28 ], the flavanonol taxifolin [ 29 ], the flavonol quercetin [ 30 ], the phenolic diterpenes carnosol and carnosic acid [ 31 ] and rosmanol [ 32 ]. Among other beneficial properties, luteolin also has anti-diabetic, anti-hypertensive, anti-asthmatic and anti-viral properties [ 27 ].…”