The objective of the study was to determine and compare the effect of several solvents namely hot water, 50 % methanol, ethanol, 50 % ethanol, acetone, 50 % acetone and ethyl acetate on phenolic composition and free radical scavenging activity in black tea and selected herbal infusions from Zimbabwe and Brazil. For the black tea, made from Camellia sinensis, Quickbrew™ was used. Zimbabwean herbal infusions used were Lippia javanica and Ficus sycamore while those from Brazil were Syzygium j a m b o l a n u m , C u p h e a c a r t h a g e n e n s i s a n d I l e x paraguariensis. Total phenolic content and free radical scavenging activity were determined using Folin-Ciocalteu and 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay, respectively. IC 50 values for each solvent were calculated and used to interpret radical scavenging activity. Aqueous organic solvents extracted higher quantities of phenolic compounds than in their absolute organic nature. Acetone (50 %) extracted a higher total phenolic content (TPC) in C. sinensis, L. javanica and I. paraguariensis. Hot water extracted the highest TPC in F. sycamore and S. jambolanum while 50 % ethanol was highest in C. carthagenensis. Free radical scavenging activity (FRSA) was not necessarily in the same order as TPC, indicating that high TPC does not always mean high FRSA and vice versa. The highest FRSA for S. jambolanum and C. carthagenensis extracts was in 50 % ethanol, F. sycamore in 50 % methanol, and I. paraguariensis, C. sinensis and L. javanica extracts in 50 % acetone. Ethyl acetate recorded the lowest TPC and FRSA in all plant samples analysed. Generally, solvent used affected TPC and free radical scavenging activity. Organic solvents may need to be separated from phenolics after extraction, as some of them namely acetone, methanol and ethyl acetate can be toxic to humans. Water and ethanol are the least toxic solvents which may need no further separation from extracts.

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Our aim was to establish if the secretion of contactin 1 (CNTN-1), a widely researched pain biomarker correlates with the severity of dysmenorrhea and circulating levels of vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM-1) and angiotensin II (ANG-II). This study was a longitudinal randomized clinical study that involved 95 female students between 17–25 years. The control participant group were students who, without medications, had not experienced dysmenorrhea, while the inclusion criteria were primary dysmenorrhea without medications. Data was collected using demographic questionnaires that also contained the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS-11), while blood samples were collected for analysis of CNTN-1, VCAM-1 and ANG-II by ELISA. The participants' mean BMI's across the four pain strata were between 16.60–38.43 kg/m 2 and in addition to age and menarche, showed no correlation to either the NRS-11 scale (r=−0.01214) or their CNTN-1 levels (r=0.009622). The severe dysmenorrhea group showed statistically higher (p<0.0001) and positive correlation to systolic (r=0.7304) and diastolic (0.6588) blood pressures. The contactin 1 levels (7.00-55.70 ng/mL) increased with higher menstrual pain and as the pain increased, so did the mean VCAM-1 and ANG-II levels (p<0.0001). A positive linear correlation (r=0.9691) was observed between the NRS-11 scale of the participants and their CNTN-1 activities while the CNTN-1 levels positively correlated with their VCAM-1 (r=0.9334) and ANG-II (r=0.8746) secretion. In summary, the severity of dysmenorrheal pain elevates the contactin 1 levels which affects their vascular health and blood pressure.

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