Effect of particle size upon the extent of extraction of antioxidant power from the plants Agrimonia eupatoria, Salvia sp. and Satureja montana

Gião, Maria S.; Pereira, Cláudia I.; Fonseca, Susana C.; Pintado, Manuela E.; Malcata, F. Xavier

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/2611

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Abstract(s)

The dependence of the extent of aqueous extraction of antioxidant compounds on particle size and contact time was studied for three important medicinal plants, that are commonly used in infusions: agrimony, sage and savoury. The effect of extraction time was dependent on the plant considered; however, ca. 5 min can be taken as the minimum period required to assure an acceptable degree of extraction of those compounds. As expected, a smaller particle size led to a higher extraction extents; a typical value of 0.2 mmis accordingly recommended. Chlorogenic acid was the dominant phenolic compound extracted from agrimony, whereas caffeic acid dominated in the case of sage or savoury. A mathematical model based on Fick’s law was developed from first principles, and its two parameters were suitably fitted to the experimental data generated – in attempts to predict the evolution of antioxidant capacity extracted during contact time, for each plant and each particle size.