Antioxidant and antimicrobial assessment of licorice supercritical extracts

Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra L.) is a plant used widely in herbal medicines due to their several biological potentials. The supercritical extraction of licorice roots was investigated to assess the antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of the extracts. Extraction conditions were pressures from 15 t...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Quintana, Somaris E.; Cueva, Carolina; Villanueva-Bermejo, David; Moreno-Arribas, M. Victoria; Fornari Reale, Tiziana; Rodríguez García-Risco, Mónica
Format: Article
Publication date:2019
Country:España
Institution:Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Repository:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/695772
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10486/695772
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2019.111496
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Antibacterial
Antioxidant
Bioactive compounds
Glycyrrhiza glabraa
Licorice
Supercritical carbon dioxide
Química
Description
Summary:Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra L.) is a plant used widely in herbal medicines due to their several biological potentials. The supercritical extraction of licorice roots was investigated to assess the antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of the extracts. Extraction conditions were pressures from 15 to 40 MPa, 313.15 and 333.15 K, and ethanol cosolvent in the range of 0 to 20% mass. In the case of high-pressure extractions using pure carbon dioxide (CO2) fractionation of the supercritical extract was accomplished in a two-cell decompression system. Fractionation was carried out with the aim to examine the potential separation of the antioxidant and antimicrobial licorice compounds and thus increase the bioactive properties of the fractions obtained in each separation cell. Main licorice bioactive compounds, liquiritin, liquiritigenin, glycyrrhizin, isoliquiritigenin and glabridin, were identified by HPLC and quantified using standards. Extracts obtained with supercritical CO2 and ethanol cosolvent contain the higher amounts of phenolic compounds and also the higher antioxidant activity but exhibit low or even no antimicrobial activity. Using pure CO2 at high pressure coupled with the on-line fractionation of the extract, two samples were obtained which showed, respectively, lower phenolic compounds content and good antimicrobial capacity (first fraction) and higher phenolic compounds content and antioxidant capacity (second fraction). Thus, the advantages of supercritical on-line fractionation are demonstrated in the extraction of Licorice roots