Abstract
Phenolic compounds are well-known phytochemicals found in all plants. They consist of simple phenols, benzoic and cinnamic acid, coumarins, tannins, lignins, lignans and flavonoids. Substantial developments in research focused on the extraction, identification and quantification of phenolic compounds as medicinal and/or dietary molecules have occurred over the last 25 years. Organic solvent extraction is the main method used to extract phenolics. Chemical procedures are used to detect the presence of total phenolics, while spectrophotometric and chromatographic techniques are utilized to identify and quantify individual phenolic compounds. This review addresses the application of different methodologies utilized in the analysis of phenolic compounds in plant-based products, including recent technical developments in the quantification of phenolics.
Highlights
Plant foods are rich sources of phenolics, which are molecules that can act as antioxidants to prevent heart disease [1,2,3], reduce inflammation [4,5,6], lower the incidence of cancers [7,8,9,10] and diabetes [11,12], as well as reduce rates of mutagenesis in human cells [7,13,14]
The protection afforded by the consumption of plant products such as fruits, vegetables and legumes is mostly associated with the presence of phenolic compounds
To release phenolic acids from glycosylated forms, 15 mL of 6 M HCl was added to the remaining aqueous fraction and the mixture kept in 100 °C for 1 h under N2
Summary
Plant foods are rich sources of phenolics, which are molecules that can act as antioxidants to prevent heart disease [1,2,3], reduce inflammation [4,5,6], lower the incidence of cancers [7,8,9,10] and diabetes [11,12], as well as reduce rates of mutagenesis in human cells [7,13,14]. Variation in phenolic acids is in the number and location of hydroxyl groups on the aromatic ring [25]. Hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives include ferulic, caffeic, p-coumaric and sinapic acids, while hydroxybenzoic acid derivatives consist of gallic, vanillic, syringic and protocatechuic acids Another major class of phenolic compounds is the cell wall phenolics. The two main groups of cell wall phenolics are lignins and hydroxycinnamic acids [26,27]. These compounds play a critical role in the cell wall during plant growth by protecting against stresses such as infection, wounding and UV radiation [28]. The most important steps for the analysis of phenolic compounds are sample preparation and extraction, followed by classification and quantification using spectrophotometry, gas chromatography (GC), high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) or capillary electrophoresis (CE) methods
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