Romanian aromatic plants as sources of antioxidants

Abstract

Nowadays the concept of chemical preservatives in foods is very controversial. Consumers’ choices redirect towards healthier and more natural alternatives. Spices and herbs have been used not only for flavoring food but also for improving the overall quality of the product and to extend the shelf-life of foods. The possibility of using some Romanian aromatic plants, oregano (Origanum vulgare), tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus), wild thyme (Thymus serpyllum), as a new source of natural antioxidant has been investigated using extraction with ethanol.
Many in vitro methods have been developed to evaluate antioxidant activity. The most widely used ones being the DPPH, ABTS, FRAP, ORAC assays. These assays are time-consuming, and when pro-oxidant compounds are to be evaluated, it suffers serious invalidity, especially in the presence of catalycally active iron. Total polyphenol content of the plant extracts was measured based on the Folin-Ciocalteu method. The antioxidant activity of the extracts was determined using PHOTOCHEM®, from Analytik Jena (Germany). The analytical method used in this study, the PCL assay, was chosen because it is rapid, sensitive, relatively simple and reproducible.
The result may suggest that the plant extracts possess compounds with antioxidant activity, and therefore can be used as natural preservative ingredients in food industry.