Determination of Bioactive Compounds in Sequential Extracts of Chia Leaf (Salvia hispanica L.) Using UHPLC-HRMS (Q-Orbitrap) and a Global Evaluation of Antioxidant In Vitro Capacity

Abstract

Consumers’ interest in foods that are nutritionally balanced and with health benefits has increased. The food industry is paying attention to the use of the ancestral seed Salvia hispanica L., commonly known as chia. At present, only chia seeds, which are a natural source of omega-3 and omega-6, fiber, proteins, and natural antioxidants, are commercialized. Although some studies reveal the presence of several bioactive compounds, such as polyphenols (e.g., vitexin, orientin, and some hydroxycinnamic acids) in chia leaf methanolic extracts, the chia plant is commonly used as fertilizer or treated as waste after harvest. Therefore, it can represent a by-product that could be considered a great source of bioactive compounds with unexplored potential in medicine and food industry applications. In this work, UHPLC-HRMS (Q-Orbitrap) was employed to tentatively identify and determine the bioactive compounds present in different leaf extracts of chia plants of black and white seed phenotype obtained with solvents of different polarity (ethanol, ethyl acetate, dichloromethane, and hexane) to address chia plant by-product revalorization. The chemical antioxidant capacity was also studied and correlated to the found bioactive compounds. In these experiments, black chia showed a higher antioxidant capacity than white chia in the ethanolic extracts. Moreover, experiments on cellular antioxidant activity were also performed with a predominance of the white chia extract. It is noted that the cellular antioxidant activity results make chia ethanolic extracts promising antioxidants.

Polyphenolic Composition and Antioxidant Activity (ORAC, EPR and Cellular) of Different Extracts of Argylia radiata Vitroplants and Natural Roots

“…It was found that the extracts of P (stem and leaves) presented the highest cellular antioxidant activity in the three solvents used, as with the results obtained through ORAC-FL. The cellular antioxidant activity determined was higher than that obtained recently by Zúñiga-López et al [ 47 ] for ethanolic extracts of Salvia hispanica L. (chia) leaves, which obtained a percentage CAA of 28 ± 2 and 13.2 ± 0.6 (evaluated at 10 µg/mL) for the white and black phenotypes, respectively. Those results points to Argylia vitroplant extracts as promising antioxidants for biotechnological applications.…”

Omega−3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFAs): Emerging Plant and Microbial Sources, Oxidative Stability, Bioavailability, and Health Benefits—A Review

“…The Chilean chia seeds contain 30-33% oil rich in ALA (62-64% of total FAs) [61,62], whereas the Indian grown chia variety CHIAmpion-B contains 28-30% oil with ~65% ALA of total FAs [63,64]. Chia seed is also a good source of protein (15-25%), total dietary fiber (34-37%), minerals, and natural antioxidants, such as carotenoids, tocopherols, polyphenols, and phytosterols [61,[65][66][67]. With the presence of a large amount of phenolic compounds, chia seed and oil exhibit good antioxidant activity [61].…”

Vitexin Mitigates Staphylococcus aureus-Induced Mastitis via Regulation of ROS/ER Stress/NF-κB/MAPK Pathway

“…Vitexin is the natural 8-C glucoside of the flavone apigenin (mung bean [ 45 ], chia leaf [ 46 ], Prosopis cineraria leaves [ 47 ], etc. ), which is very likely to become a natural antioxidant.…”