Resumen

FLORES CALDERON, Corina; SEPERIZA WITTWER, Astrid  y  FLOREZ MENDEZ, Jennyfer. Chemical profile and antioxidant capacity of aromatic herbs from southern Chile for medicinal purposes. Rev. Inv. Cs. Agro. y Vet. [online]. 2022, vol.6, n.18, pp.463-476.  Epub 04-Nov-2022. ISSN 2664-0902.  https://doi.org/10.33996/revistaalfa.v6i18.183.

Over the years, there is a growing concern about the prevention of chronic diseases and aging, which has led consumers to become interested and learn more about the type of food and the properties of ancestral aromatic herbs to be used as infusions due to their health benefits, or to give flavor, color and aroma to food. Similarly, they have also been used for food and beverage preservation mainly due to the antioxidant compounds they possess. The objective of this study was to evaluate the antioxidant capacity, active principles (caffeic acid and rosmarinic acid) and proximate analysis of eight freeze-dried aromatic herbs from southern Chile: peppermint, mint, rosemary, lavender, lemon balm, hollyhock, thyme and marigold. The antioxidant capacity was performed using the ORAC method. This method is an assay that measures the capacity of a compound to trap the peroxyl radical, by means of a HAT hydrogen atom transfer mechanism. The active principles by high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detector HPLC-DAD and proximate analysis (protein, fat, carbohydrate, ash and energy) based on the methods described by the AOAC (Association of Offical Analytical Chemistry). The results obtained show that mint has the highest antioxidant capacity compared to the other herbs analyzed (71,542.90 μmoles ET/100g), followed by hollyhock and thyme. In terms of active principles, peppermint had the highest amount of both compounds (8 mg/g p.s. of caffeic acid and 33 mg/g p.s. of rosmarinic acid), followed by lavender for caffeic acid and by thyme for rosmarinic acid. In relation to proximate analysis, the results for protein varied between 6.62 and 20.78 g/100g, for lavender and hierba buena respectively. It can be concluded that aromatic herbs from southern Chile have high values for antioxidant capacity and active principles, which contributes to potential uses and benefits in human health.

Palabras clave : Antioxidant capacity; Aromatic herbs; Alternative medicine; Chemical profile; Health.

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