The use of teas made by medicinal plants is a consolidated practice in Brazil. The chemical profile of teas can be affected by the storage and handling conditions of the plant material. These conditions can cause volatilization, enzymatic degradation, hydrolysis and oxidation of the secondary metabolites, which can affect the biological properties of the teas. This paper describes how the chemical profile of basil extracts, prepared by aqueous infusion, is affected by variations on the contact time between plant material and boiling water (5, 10 20 and 30 minutes), and the use of whole and fragmented fresh leaves, that were stored according to the methods commonly used by the population: cooling and freezing (7 days). The chemical profile of the extracts was evaluated by GC-MS. The tea in which the highest number of metabolites was extracted, 15 in total.  was obtained using fresh fragmented leaves with 20 minutes of infusion. In the teas prepared by using whole fresh leaves (infusion by 5 to 30 minutes) and frozen leaves (infusion by 30 minutes), 11 metabolites were observed. The teas prepared by using cooled leaves (infusion by 5 to 30 min) and dried leaves (infusion by 30 min) presented 5 metabolites each. In the tea prepared by using dried leaves, with infusion time of 5 minutes, only 2 metabolites were observed. The results indicate that the presence of pharmacological bioactive metabolites in homemade basil’s tea may vary according to the form of storage of the leaves and preparation methods of the tea.

Fennel (foeniculun vulgare L.) is a vegetal species that presents bioactive monoterpenes. These compounds are lipophilic substances almost insoluble in water. The best conditions to extract these substances, employs organic solvents or heating process. With the aim to developing new extractive methods in which the green chemical principles cam be applied, this work was performed. The effect of the use of ultrasound during the preparation of fennel extracts by water infusion and by ethyl acetate maceration methods was verified. The ethyl acetate extracts, and the organic portion of the aqueous extracts were analyzed by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. The ethyl acetate extraction, without the use of ultrasound leads only to the extraction of two metabolites (fenchone and anethole), the maceration performed by using ultrasound by 5 and 10 minutes, promoted the extraction of seven metabolites (a-pinene, L-fenchone, estragole, anethole, β-caryophyllene, a-cadenol, and geranylgeraniol), while the use of ultrasound in times upper than 10 minutes leas to extracts with 4 metabolites (a-pinene, L-fenchone, estragole and limonene). The aqueous extracts submitted or not to the use of ultrasound led to the extraction of the same and five metabolites (D-limonene, L-fenchone, estragole, and anethole).