Polyphenols are a large group of secondary plant metabolites that can be employed as preservatives, antioxidants, and additives. Fumaria officinalis L. (fumitory, Fumariaceae family) is an annual scramblingplant, disturbed and cultivated throughout Europe, and several studies have shown its antimicrobial, antioxidant, antispasmodic, laxative, anthelmintic, anticoagulant, cholagogue, cytotoxic, and sedative potential. The present research aimed to extract antioxidants from the fumitory aerial part of the plant by performing traditional and novel extraction procedures (maceration and ultrasound- and microwave-assisted extractions, UAE and MAE, respectively) and determine the antioxidant capacity of the obtained extracts (ABTS, DPPH, CUPRAC, and FRAP assays). Fumitory macerate showed significantly lower ABTS radical scavenging activity, expressed as a higher IC50 value (the concentration of extract required to neutralize 50% of radicals, 11.4±0.1 mg/mL), in comparison to the other two extracts, whose IC50 values varied over a narrow range (8.6-9.5 mg/mL). However, in the DPPH assay, the trend was different: MAE (11.4±0.3 mg/mL)≥UAE (12.0±0.8 mg/mL)≥macerate (12.8±0.1 mg/mL). In the CUPRAC assay, the trend was as follows: UAE and MAE (17.84±0.85 and 18.05±0.71 µmol Trolox equivalent (TE)/g, respectively)>macerate (16.43±0.45 µmol TE/g). Regarding the results of the FRAP method, there was no statistically significant difference in terms of ferric ion reduction between the macerate, UAE, and MAE extracts (3.00-3.27 µmol Fe2+/g). An LC-MS analysis of the fumitory extracts revealed the presence of protopine-type (protopine, oxo-, methyl and/or acetyl protopine derivatives and cryptopine) and spirobenzylisoquinoline-type alkaloids (fumariline and fumarophycine). Chlorogenic and caffeoylmalic acids were also identified, as well as quercetin trihexoside, rutin, methylquercetin pentoside hexoside, isoquercitrin, quercetin, and kaempferol deoxyhexosylhexoside. The presence or absence of significant differences among the fumitory extracts that show the highest antioxidant potential in the various employed tests can be explained by the fact that different secondary metabolites, and their interactions, can significantly affect the overall antioxidant activity of fumitory extracts.
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Antioxidant capacity of different Fumaria officinalis extracts
Published:
04 April 2025
by MDPI
in The 2nd International Electronic Conference on Antioxidants
session Antioxidants Extraction, Assay and Industrial Applications
Abstract:
Keywords: extraction; fumitory; antioxidant assays; polyphenols
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