Food Safety
Soghra Valizadeh; Farzad Katiraee; Hamed Behniafar
Abstract
Plant-derived compounds possess robust antioxidant capabilities and exhibit notable antimicrobial activities against diverse pathogens. This study investigated the antioxidant activities of methanolic and aqueous extracts of Satureja hortensis (S. hortensis) and Cinnamomum zeylanicum (C. zeylanicum). ...
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Plant-derived compounds possess robust antioxidant capabilities and exhibit notable antimicrobial activities against diverse pathogens. This study investigated the antioxidant activities of methanolic and aqueous extracts of Satureja hortensis (S. hortensis) and Cinnamomum zeylanicum (C. zeylanicum). The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimal fungicidal concentration (MFC) of the extracts were also evaluated. The antifungal activity of methanolic extract of S. hortensis (MIC 1.25 mg/mL) was higher than that of the aqueous extract (MIC 5 mg/mL) on P. chrysogenum. For Candida species, especially C. albicans, MIC and MFC of methanolic extract were lower (MIC 0.31 mg/mL, MFC 1.25 mg/mL) than aqueous extract. The methanolic extract of C. zeylanicum exhibited a MIC of 0.31 mg/mL and MFC of 0.62 mg/mL against P. chrysogenum, outperforming the aqueous extract (MIC 0.62 mg/mL, MFC 1.25 mg/mL). Similarly, methanolic extracts showed markedly lower MIC values than the aqueous extracts against Candida species. In antioxidant activity of methanolic and aqueous extracts of both plants, ABTS values were consistently higher than DPPH results, likely due to ABTS's broader sensitivity to hydrophilic and lipophilic antioxidants. In the DPPH assay, the methanolic extract of C. zeylanicum exhibited the highest antioxidant activity with a scavenging percentage of 89.16 ± 0.6%. In the ABTS method, the methanolic extract of C. zeylanicum exhibited highest antioxidant activity, with a scavenging percentage of 97.8 ± 0.1%. The results of this study indicate that S. hortensis and C. zeylanicum extracts are promising natural antifungals and antioxidants.
