Synergistic Antioxidant Activity of Four—Component Mixture of Essential Oils: Basil, Cedarwood, Citronella and Thyme for the Use as Medicinal and Food Ingredient
Tomasz Baj,
Grażyna Kowalska,
Radosław Kowalski,
Jolanta Szymańska,
Guoyin Kai,
Henrique Douglas Melo Coutinho,
Elwira Sieniawska
Affiliations
Tomasz Baj
Department of Pharmacognosy with Medicinal Plants Garden, Medical University of Lublin, 1 Chodźki Str., 20-093 Lublin, Poland
Grażyna Kowalska
Department of Tourism and Recreation, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, 15 Akademicka Str., 20-950 Lublin, Poland
Radosław Kowalski
Department of Analysis and Food Quality Assessment, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, 8 Skromna Str., 20-704 Lublin, Poland
Jolanta Szymańska
Department of Integrated Paediatric and Adult Dentistry, Medical University of Lublin, 6 Chodźki Str., 20-093 Lublin, Poland
Guoyin Kai
Zhejiang Provincial International S&T Cooperation Base for Active Ingredients of Medicinal and Edible Plants and Health, Jinhua Academy, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou 310053, China
Henrique Douglas Melo Coutinho
Departamento de Química Biológica, Universidade Regional do Cariri, Rua Cel. Antônio Luíz-Pimenta, Crato 63105-110, CE, Brazil
Elwira Sieniawska
Department of Natural Products Chemistry, Medical University of Lublin, 1 Chodźki Str., 20-093 Lublin, Poland
Mixture design is a statistical tool used to obtain the maximum desired effect using the minimum number of experiments. The aim of the presented work was the optimization of the composition of a mixture of essential oils from basil, citronella, cedarwood and thyme using simplex-lattice mixture design method. The optimized parameter was an antioxidant activity measured in DPPH assay and expressed as effective concentration (EC50). The test results showed an interesting synergy between the components of essential oils. The prepared binary and quaternary mixtures were characterized by higher activity than simple average activity. The designed mixture with approximated highest antioxidant activity was composed of: 54.4% citronella essential oil, 33.0% thyme essential oil, 9.2% cedarwood essential oil and 3.4% basil essential oil and its approximated activity was in agreement with experimental values. This work confirmed that it is possible to approximate the best antioxidant composition of four essential oils used as a potential medicinal and food ingredient.
