Phytochemical Characterization and Evaluation of the Antioxidant and Anti-Enzymatic Activity of Five Common Spices: Focus on Their Essential Oils and Spent Material Extractives

Abstract

The essential oil industry of aromatic herbs and spices is currently producing a significant amount of by-products, such as the spent plant materials remaining after steam or hydrodistillation, that are simply discarded. The aim of this study was to comparatively investigate the phytochemical composition, antioxidant and multi-enzymatic inhibitory potential of the essential oils and spent plant material extractives obtained from cinnamon, cumin, clove, laurel, and black pepper. The essential oils were characterized by the presence of several phytochemical markers (cinnamaldehyde, cuminaldehyde, eugenol, eucalyptol, α-terpinene, limonene, β-caryophyllene or β-pinene). On the other hand, the LC-HRMS/MS profiling of the spent material extracts allowed the annotation of species specific and non-specific metabolites, such as organic acids, phenolic acids, flavonoids, proanthocyanidins, hydrolysable tannins, fatty acids, or piperamides. All samples exhibited very strong antioxidant effects, with the clove essential oil displaying the strongest radical scavenging (525.78 and 936.44 mg TE/g in DPPH and ABTS assays), reducing (2848.28 and 1927.98 mg TE/g in CUPRAC and FRAP), and total antioxidant capacity (68.19 mmol TE/g). With respect to the anti-acetylcholinesterase (0.73–2.95 mg GALAE/g), anti-butyrylcholinesterase (0–3.41 mg GALAE/g), anti-tyrosinase (0–76.86 mg KAE/g), anti-amylase and anti-glucosidase (both 0–1.00 mmol ACAE/g) assays, the spice samples showed a modest activity. Overall, our study reports that, not only the volatile fractions of common spices, but also their spent plant materials remaining after hydrodistillation can be regarded as rich sources of bioactive molecules with antioxidant and multi-enzymatic inhibitory effects.

Health Benefits and Risks of Consuming Spices on the Example of Black Pepper and Cinnamon

“…The scavenging capacity of DPPH extracts with hexane, dichloromethane, 50% aqueous methanol and methanol was 18.77 ± 0.24, 19.56 ± 0.59, 45.41 ± 0.03, and 32.41 ± 0.07 mg Trolox equivalents (TE)/g, respectively. The presented research results indicate the importance of the analytical technique used in the extraction of the research material, and specifically in the type of polar and non-polar solvent used for the extraction of the spice [ 127 ].…”

“…In the same study, the antioxidant activity (using the DPPH radical) was as follows: 6.96 ± 0.41, 9.39 ± 0.57, 473.74 ± 1.45, 178.42 ± 0.81%. These results clearly indicate a high relationship between antioxidant activity and the extraction technique, i.e., the polarity of the solvent, which influences the extraction of cinnamon essential oil [ 127 ].…”

Effect of Different Heat Treatments on the Quality and Flavor Compounds of Black Tibetan Sheep Meat by HS-GC-IMS Coupled with Multivariate Analysis

“…Most ketones have stable flavors of fruit and cream, and their threshold value is higher than that of aldehydes but lower than that of alcohols [58]. Some ketones are important intermediates of heterocyclic compounds [61], which play an important role in meat flavor. Therefore, ketones indirectly contribute to meat aroma.…”

Characterization of Solution Blow Spun Poly(Lactic) Acid Based Nanofibers Containing Sucuk Spice Mix Essential Oils

“…The oils of sucuk spice mix contain various compounds, such as thymol, carvacrol, cumin aldehyde, terpinene, limonene [25] and it is also well known that these compounds impart antimicrobial activity to essential oils against various microorganisms. Due to the hydrophobic nature of PLA and essential oils, the agar disc diffusion method did not give results for solution blow spun PLA nano bers, and antibacterial activity against Gram-negative E. coli and Gram-positive S. aureus bacteria was evaluated via colony counting method (Fig.…”