Abstract
In the last decade, there has been growing interest in the food industry in replacing synthetic chemicals with natural products with bioactive properties. This study’s aims were to determine the chemical composition and the antioxidant properties of the essential oil of Pastianica sylvestris. The essential oil was isolated with a yield of 0.41% (w/v) by steam distillation from the dried seeds and subsequently analysed by GC-MS. Octyl acetate (78.49%) and octyl hexanoate (6.68%) were the main components. The essential oil exhibited an excellent activity for the inhibition of primary and secondary oxidation products for cold-pressed sunflower oil comparable with butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), which were evaluated using peroxide and thiobarbituric acid values. The antioxidant activity of the essential oil was additionally validated using DPPH radical scavenging (0.0016 ± 0.0885 mg/mL), and β-carotene-linoleic acid bleaching assays. Also, the amounts of total phenol components (0.0053 ± 0.0023 mg GAE/g) were determined.
Highlights
Lipid oxidation and the decomposition of oxidation products represent the main deterioration processes which result in decreasing shelf-life, nutritional value and the generation of off odours and off flavours, altering the texture and colour of food products [1]
The essential oils (EOs) was extracted from P. sylvestris seeds with a yield of 0.41% (w/v)
Carroll et al reported that aliphatic esters, octyl acetate and octyl butyrate occur as the major components of EOs of the mature seeds of wild parsnip [17]
Summary
Lipid oxidation and the decomposition of oxidation products represent the main deterioration processes which result in decreasing shelf-life, nutritional value and the generation of off odours and off flavours, altering the texture and colour of food products [1] These quality deteriorations cause the rejection of affected foods by consumers. To reduce the rate of auto-oxidation, several techniques can be adopted, such as the prevention of oxygen access by using suitable packaging materials, storage of food products on lower temperatures or inactivation of enzymes catalysing oxidation [2] These techniques are not always practical or economical from the nutritional and technological points of view [3]. Due to the potential adverse health effects of synthetic antioxidants [4,5,6], and as a result of consumer requests to reduce the usage of synthetic additives over the past four decades, hundreds of essential oils (EOs) have been evaluated to identify suitable and safe sources of natural antioxidants
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