Gião, Maria S.Pereira, Cláudia I.Fonseca, Susana C.Pintado, Manuela E.Malcata, F. Xavier2010-09-302010-09-302009"Food Chemistry". ISSN 0308-8146. 117: 3 (2009) 412–416http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/2611The 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.engAgrimonySageSavouryABTSSieveGranulometryPhenolic compoundsjournal article10.1016/j.foodchem.2009.04.02067349151386000267477400006