Phenolic Antioxidants Identified by ESI-MS from Yerba Maté (Ilex paraguariensis) and Green Tea (Camelia sinensis) Extracts

Abstract

Aqueous extracts of green yerba maté (Ilex paraguariensis) and green tea (Camellia sinensis) are good sources of phenolic antioxidants, as already described in the literature. The subject of this study were organic extracts from yerba maté, both green and roasted, and from green tea. Their phenolic profiles were characterized by direct infusion electrospray insertion mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) and their free radical scavenging activity was determined by the DPPH assay. Organic extracts containing phenolic antioxidants might be used as natural antioxidants by the food industry, replacing the synthetic phenolic additives used nowadays. Ethanolic and aqueous extracts from green yerba maté, roasted yerba maté and green tea showed excellent DPPH scavenging activity (>89%). The ether extracts from green and roasted yerba maté displayed a weak scavenging activity, different from the behavior observed for the green tea ether extract. The main phenolic compounds identified in green yerba maté water and ethanolic extracts were: caffeic acid, quinic acid, caffeoyl glucose, caffeoylquinic acid, feruloylquinic acid, dicaffeoylquinic acid and rutin. After the roasting process two new Molecules 2007, 12 424 compounds were formed: caffeoylshikimic acid and dicaffeoylshikimic acid. The ethanolic extracts from yerba maté, both roasted and green, with lower content of phenolic compounds (3.80 and 2.83 mg/mL) presented high antioxidant activity and even at very low phenolic concentrations, ether extract from GT (0.07 mg/mL) inhibited DPPH over 90%.

Antioxidant potential of yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis St. Hil.) extracts in Saccharomyces cerevisae deficient in oxidant defense genes

“…This decrease on phenolic compounds can reduce antioxidant activity in the oxidized leaves . Indeed, the relationship between phenolic content and antioxidant activity is widely described in literature for different plants (Nunes, 2007;Heck and Mejia, 2007;Bastos et al, 2007).…”

“…The yerba-mate fits in this context, due to the numerous benefits to health it provides, such as hypocholesterolemic and hepatoprotective activity (Filip and Ferraro, 2003;Açari et al, 2011); central nervous system stimulation; diuretic action (Castaldelli et al, 2011), inhibition of neoplastic cells proliferation (Mejía et al, 2010); and antioxidant activity, preventing damages caused by free radicals (Bastos et al, 2007). Studies showed that among ten plant species used as teas, the yerba-mate was one that showed the highest antioxidant capacity (Asolini et al, 2006).…”

Reduction in oxidative stress levels in the colonic mucosa without fecal stream after the application of enemas containing aqueous Ilex paraguariensis extract

“…Previous research has shown that compounds found in mate tea, mainly polyphenols, have antioxidant, antiinflammatory, immunomodulatory and anticancer effects 3,4 .…”

Green and roasted arabica coffees differentiated by ripeness, process and cup quality via electrospray ionization mass spectrometry fingerprinting

“…ESI-MS employs little sample preparation and gives immediate compositional information for ESI-ionizable compounds. It has been very efficient for fingerprinting complex mixtures such as that of soybean extracts, 11 tea, 12 spices, 13 vegetable oil 14 and more recently, it has been applied to investigate the differences between Arabica and Robusta defective green coffees. 15 We report herein the ESI-MS fingerprinting of the methanolic extracts of Arabica coffees in the positive and negative ion modes, ESI(+)-MS and ESI(-)-MS, respectively.…”