Extraction, Chemical Characterization, and Antioxidant Activity of Bioactive Plant Extracts Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • Natural extracts have been proposed as preservatives to increase the safety of various food products. In this work, the phytochemical and antioxidant profiles of French lavender (Lavandula stoechas), lemon balm, basil, tarragon, salvia, and spearmint extracts were studied. The results show that hydroethanolic extracts may be more effective as biopreservatives if moderate temperatures are used in the extraction process, as they revealed higher phenolic content. More specifically, the results also show that lemon balm extracts present a great potential to be used as biopreservatives, due to their high-level phenolic and flavonoid contents and antioxidant activity.
  • The authors are grateful to EU PRIMA programme and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for funding the ArtiSaneFood project (PRIMA/0001/2018) and for financial support through national funds FCT/MCTES to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020). This study was supported by FCT under the scope of the strategic funding of UIDB/04469/2020 unit and Bio- TecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020—Programa Operacional Regional do Norte. Silva wishes to acknowledge the financial support provided by FCT through the PhD grant SFRH/BD/137801/2018. Ferreira-Santos acknowledges the European Social Fund (NORTE-08-5369-FSE-000036, call NORTE-69-2015-15). Gonzales-Barron acknowledges the national funding by FCT, P.I., through the Institutional Scientific Employment Programme contract.

publication date

  • January 1, 2020