Antioxidants (Aug 2019)

Relationships Between Chemical Structure and Antioxidant Activity of Isolated Phytocompounds from Lemon Verbena

  • Noelia Sánchez-Marzo,
  • Jesús Lozano-Sánchez,
  • María de la Luz Cádiz-Gurrea,
  • María Herranz-López,
  • Vicente Micol,
  • Antonio Segura-Carretero

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox8080324
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 8
p. 324

Abstract

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Over the last few years, people have been concerned about the narrow relationship between nutrition and health leading to an increasing demand of nutraceutical products and functional food. Lemon verbena (Lippia citriodora Kunth) has been traditionally used for respiratory, digestive, and muscular diseases, showing effects that are promoted by the antioxidant activity of its phytoconstituents. The antioxidant power of several lemon verbena extracts has been tested but its isolated compounds activity has not been described. The aim of the present work was to isolate phytochemicals from a commercial lemon verbena extract through a semi-preparative high-performance liquid chromatography approach for further evaluation of its individual antioxidant activity using three different methods. The structure-antioxidant activity relationships revealed the influence of substitutions in the strong antioxidant power exerted by glycosylated phenylpropanoids, in contrast to the low antioxidant capacity showed by iridoids. Development of enriched extracts in these compounds could lead to greater antioxidant effects and improved functional ingredients to prevent chronic diseases.

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