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The aim of the present work is to study whether the introduction of rosemary plant byproduct, from plant steam distillation, in daily Segurena sheep feeding allows the transfer of active antioxidant components to lamb meat, without detriment to the animal productivity. For this, 36 Segurena ewes were assigned randomly to three homogeneous groups. One group was fed a basal diet as a control and the diet of the other two groups was modified by substituting 10 or 20% of the control diet (respectively) with distilled rosemary leaves. Chromatographic analysis allowed the identification of 11 polyphenolic components previously identified in the rosemary and basal diet pellets, respectively. Among them, rosmarinic acid, carnosol, and carnosic acid were the phenolic components that had a significantly increased presence ( P < 0.05) in the lamb meat from sheep mothers fed this aromatic herb, when compared to the control group. The incorporation of this byproduct into the animal diet favored the antioxidant capacity of these lamb meat samples. Fresh meat produced on rosemary had higher total ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) ( P < 0.05), greater ability to reduce ABTS*+, and lower IC50 (DPPH*) ( P < 0.05) values when compared to the control group. Because no statistically significant differences were detected among the results obtained from the lamb meat belonging to the different ewe groups fed rosemary leaf extract (10 or 20%), it can be concluded that the incorporation of distilled rosemary leaves at a rate of 10% of the ewes' diet should be enough to improve the lamb meat antioxidant status.

The variation in the chemical composition of the essential oil of Salvia officinalis , growing in different habitats, was studied. GC-MS analysis revealed 57 compounds representing 94.68-96.80% of total oils. The major components were alpha-thujone (11.55-19.23%), viridiflorol (9.94-19.46%), 1,8-cineole (8.85-15.60%), camphor (5.08-15.06%), manool (5.52-13.06%), beta-caryophyllene (2.63-9.24%), alpha-humulene (1.93-8.94%), and beta-thujone (5.45-6.17%), showing significant differences between different collection sites. Analysis of some representative polyphenolic compounds and antioxidant activity was performed using postdistilled dry samples. Rosmarinic acid, carnosol, and carnosic acid were the prevalent compounds of S. officinalis methanolic extracts. The results revealed differences in the polyphenolic composition and also exhibited antioxidant and radical-scavenging activities at different magnitudes of potency. However, within the used methods, only the DPPH(*) assay showed significant differences (p < 0.05) in free radical scavenging activity among samples collected in different regions. Plants collected in the coastal regions Soliman and Kelibia accumulate more polyphenolic compounds, known to be responsible for the main antioxidant activity of sage (rosmarinic acid, carnosol, and carnosic acid), than those growing inland at Bou Arada and Sers. Moreover, the former presented a higher radical-scavenging activity. The methanolic extracts of postdistilled S. officinalis might be valuable antioxidant natural sources and seemed to be applicable in both the health medicine and food industries.

No abstract

The importance of the diterpenic and rosmarinic acid content in the biological activities of rosemary extracts has been studied previously, but how the relationship between the concentration of these components affects their antioxidant and antibacterial activities has received little attention. Accordingly, from a total of 150 plants, 27 methanolic extracts were selected, for their similar diterpene contents but different ratios between carnosic acid and carnosol concentrations. In extracts with similar rosmarinic acid contents but differing proportions between carnosic acid and carnosol, the two diterpenes were seen to equally affect the in vitro antioxidant activity; however, and related with the antibacterial efficiency, this biological activity improved when carnosol was the major diterpene component.