It is now agreed that food plays a major role in the maintenance of good health. The awareness of consumers about diet‐related health problems has increased. Hence, nowadays, preference is given to the natural food ingredients, which are expected to be safe and health promoting. Recently, many studies on health benefits associated with curcumin have been reported. In the present study, an attempt had been made to isolate curcumin from a mixture of curcuminoids by means of column chromatography technique. Further, the antioxidant activity of curcumin was studied in refined sunflower oil (RSFO). The activity was compared with that of mixture of curcuminoids in RSFO. The results showed that the other curcuminoids, i.e., demethoxycurcumin and bisdemethoxycurcumin had a profound effect on the activity of curcumin.
Practical Applications
Natural extracts have potential to stabilize unsaturated essential fatty acids effectively. It is well known that the presence of an active constituent in these natural extracts provides the property of antioxidant to the extract. The results revealed that the minor constituents had a profound effect on the activity of active constituent. The synergistic activity of all the constituents in an extract determines the resultant antioxidant activity of the extract.