In search of the EC 60 : the case study of bee pollen, Quercus ilex honey, and saffron
- PDF / 1,380,211 Bytes
- 9 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 52 Downloads / 175 Views
ORIGINAL PAPER
In search of the EC60: the case study of bee pollen, Quercus ilex honey, and saffron Ioannis K. Karabagias1 · Vassilios K. Karabagias1 · Anastasia V. Badeka1 Received: 7 June 2020 / Revised: 27 July 2020 / Accepted: 10 August 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The aim of this, comparative in nature, study was to investigate the in vitro antioxidant activity of bee pollen, Quercus ilex honey, and saffron on the basis of the effective concentration of phytochemicals/antioxidants that could inhibit the DPPH free radical by 60% ( EC60), using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) assay, in combination with regression analysis. Aqueous, ethanolic, and methanolic extracts of the aforementioned matrices of different concentrations were subjected to analysis. Results showed that the effective concentration of phytochemicals/antioxidants found in bee pollen, Quercus ilex honey and saffron could inhibit the DPPH free radical by 60% (EC60). The respective order of the significantly different (p saffron > Quercus ilex honey. Results were further evaluated using standard gallic acid and quercetin. The use of a new index for the expression of the in vitro antioxidant power of natural products/ foods may be of great importance for different bodies, concerning the producers, traders, consumers, and may be the solid basis for the development of numerous in vivo studies. Graphic abstract
Keywords Natural products · Phytochemicals · Antioxidant activity · EC60 · New perspectives Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00217-020-03588-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Ioannis K. Karabagias [email protected]; [email protected] 1
Laboratory of Food Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece
Introduction Nature still holds many secrets concerning the welfare of humans’ by offering specific materials that can be used either as food or medicine. Natural based products gain
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
a lot of appreciation by researchers and consumers at an international level and are considered in most cases as functional foods due to their numerous health benefits [1]. Bee pollen is the pollen ball that has been packed by worker honeybees into pellets. The chemical composition of bee pollen depends on the plants the worker bees gather the pollen from. The average composition is reported to be 40–60% simple sugars (fructose and glucose), 20–60% proteins, 3% minerals and vitamins, 1–32% fatty acids, and 5% diverse other components including among others considerable amounts of vitamins, flavonoids and phenolic acids, although there is no specific chemical composition [2]. Potential applications of bee pollen include its use in apitherapy and as a functional food in the food industry due to pollen nutritional properties along with its potential in medical and nutritional applications. Bee pollen demonstrates a series of
Data Loading...
