Antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of muscadine grape extracts

Abstract

The objective of this research was to investigate the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of muscadine grape extracts. Three different cultivars of muscadine grapes including Higgings, Jumbo, and Noble were selected. The skin/pulp and seed parts of three selected muscadine grape cultivars were used for extraction. The total phenolic contents of muscadine grape extracts were expressed as gallic acid equivalents (GAE). The antioxidant activity of muscadine grape extracts were determined by scavenging activity of diphenylpicrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical and expressed as effective concentration (EC50), which represented the concentration of the extract exhibiting 50% DPPH radical scavenging. The antimicrobial activity against E. coli K12 was determined and expressed as the minimum inhibition concentration (MIC). The seed extracts exhibited greater total phenolic contents than the skin/pulp extracts, ranging from 231.24 to 294.81 mg/mL GAE. The seed extracts exhibited greater antioxidant activities than the skin/pulp extracts (EC50 of Higgins seed extract=0.026 mg/mL). However, the skin/pulp extracts exhibited greater antimicrobial activities than the seed extracts, exhibiting the minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) in Higgins skin/pulp extract (MIC=4.0 mg/mL). This research indicated that the seed part and skin/pulp parts of the muscadine grapes possessed antioxidant activity and antimicrobial activity, respectively. Therefore, it was concluded that muscadine grapes possess the potential to be utilized as functional foods or nutraceuticals.