Subcritical water extraction as an environmentally-friendly technique to recover bioactive compounds from traditional Serbian medicinal plants

Abstract

Subcritical water extraction (SWE) has become a popular green extraction technique for the isolation of different classes of compounds from natural matrices. Low price, safety and green character of water, good yields of target compounds and reduced energy consumption, make this technique favorable for potential industrial applications. The purpose of this study was to evaluate antioxidant, antimicrobial and cytotoxic activity of four medicinal plants traditionally used in folk medicine of Serbia. Black mulberry (Morus nigra L.), wall germander (Teucrium chamaedrys L.), wild geranium (Geranium macrorrhizum L.) and comfrey (Symphytum officinale L.) were extracted by subcritical water at different temperatures. Antioxidant activity of the extracts was defined by conventional spectrophotometric methods, such as the total phenolic content (TPC), DPPH-radical scavenging activity (DPPH-RSA), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) assessed by a DNA-based sensor. Additionally, the main phenolic compounds contributing to the antioxidant activity of the produced extracts were also identified and quantified by high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD). Antimicrobial properties of extracts were evaluated against eight microbial strains. Furthermore, the cytotoxic activity was observed for two human cancer cell lines and a cell line derived from murine fibroblast.

New technological approaches for recovering bioactive food constituents from sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) stems

“…With respect to the temperature, the best results were achieved for PLE 8 and 9 performed at 176 and 200°C, respectively. In general, solvents have higher capacity to solubilise compounds at higher temperatures enabling its liberation from the matrix due to the cell rupture of plant samples and the destruction of sample surface . The results also reported that lower ethanol percentage was associated with an improvement of EY.…”

“…In general, solvents have higher capacity to solubilise compounds at higher temperatures enabling its liberation from the matrix due to the cell rupture of plant samples and the destruction of sample surface. 31,32 The results also reported that lower ethanol percentage was associated with an improvement of EY. This can be explained because although the use of dual solvent mixture can enhance the extraction efficiency, higher percentages of ethanol lead to a decrease in the EY.…”

Subcritical water extraction of antioxidants from mountain germander (Teucrium montanum L.)

“…Subcritical water enhances also mass transfer and desorption kinetics, potentiating the dissociation of the compounds from their complexes with matrix constituents [19]. Recently, a number of papers describing SWE of bioactive compounds from plants have been published [11,[20][21][22].…”

<i>Dalbergia ecastaphyllum</i> leaf extracts: <i>in vitro</i> inhibitory potential against enzymes related to metabolic syndrome, inflammation and neurodegenerative diseases

“…The identification and quantification of phenolic compounds were performed according to the method previously described by Nastić et al (2018). In brief, D. ecastaphyllum extracts (20 μL) were injected into the HPLC system (Shimadzu Corporation, Kyoto, Japan) equipped with an LC-20AD prominence pump, a DGU-20AS prominence degasser, a CTO-10AS VP column oven, a SIL-20A HT prominence autosampler, and an SPD-M20A photodiode array detector (PDA).…”