Regiane Ribeiro-Santosa,b,*; Mariana Alvoco Andrade,a,c; Nathália R. ... and Nutrition, National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge, I.P., Lisbon, Portugal;.
Study of the Potential of Application of Essential Oils in Active Food Packaging Regiane Ribeiro-Santosa,b,*; Mariana Alvoco Andrade, a,c; Nathália R. Melob,d; Ana Sanches-Silvaa,e a Department
of Food and Nutrition, National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge, I.P., Lisbon, Portugal; b Department of Food Technology, Institute of Technology, Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro, Seropédica, Brazil; c Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal; d Department of Agribusiness Engineering, Federal Fluminense University– Volta Redonda, RJ – Brazil; e Centro de Estudos de Ciência Animal (CECA), Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.
Introduction
Results and Discussion
Essential oils (EO) are complex mixtures of volatile compounds, usually obtained by steam distillation, from several plant organs such as flowers, leaves, roots, stems and bark. The chemical composition of EO includes active compounds known for their great potential as food preservatives (Fig. 1). EO can be potentially applied to active food packaging as antimicrobial and/or antioxidant agents [1].
The validation of the method comprised the following parameters: Good linearity (R2 > 0.99); Intra and inter-day precision (expressed as relative standard deviation) lower than 5%; Limits of quantification lower than 1 mg/mL; The results are summarized in Table 2 and Figure 5 and they are in accordance with results reported by other authors regarding the content of EO in volatile compounds [2-3]. Table 2. Concentration of the major compounds present in the studied essential oils, retention time (RT) and wavelength (λ) at which they were quantified.
Fig. 1- Essential oils.
Objective To identify and quantify the major components of cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum L. and Cinnamomum cassia L.) and basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) (Fig. 2 and 3) EO by Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled with Diode Array Detector (UHPLC-DAD).
Essential oil
Major compounds
RT (min) ± SD*
λ (nm)
Concentration (mg/g) ± SD
C. zeylanicum L.
Eugenol
10.5 ± 0.1
282
882.8 ± 22.6
C. cassia L.
Cinnamaldehyde
8.0 ± 0.1
291
869.2 ± 15.4
O. basilicum L.
Methyl chavicol
16.2 ± 0.1
277
868.7 ± 20.6
* SD- Standard Deviation
(A)
0.60
0.15
(C)
(B) 5.00
0.50
4.00 0.10
AU
Fig. 3- Basil.
AU
Fig. 2- Cinnamon.
AU
0.40
0.30
3.00
2.00
0.05 0.20
Materials and Methods
1.00 0.10
0.00
0.00
0.00
An UHPLC-DAD method was developed and validated for simultaneously quantification of the major components of the selected EO (Table 1; Fig. 4). The major components of the EO were quantified at the wavelengths that correspond to their UV-Vis absorption maximum. Table 1. Chromatographic conditions of the optimized UHPLC-DAD method. Equipment
Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatograph (UPLC® ACQUITY ™) coupled with DAD (Waters, Milford, MA, EUA)
Pre-column
ACQUITY TM UPLC® BEH C18 (2.1 x 5 mm; 1.7 μm particle size)
Column
ACQUITYTM UPLC® BEH Shield RP 18 (2.1 × 100 mm; 1.7 μm particle size)
Mobile phase
Acetonitrile + 0.1% acetic acid (v/v) (solvent A) and ultra pure water + 0.1% acetic acid (v/v) (solvent B)
Elution mode
Gradient
Column temperature
20 C
References [1] Wen J, Morrissey PA, Walton J, Sheehy PJA. Irish J Agr Food Res 36 (1997) 75-84. [2] Tongnuanchan P, Benjakul S. J Food Sci 79 (2014) R1231-R1249.
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Fig. 5- UHPLC-DAD chromatograms of the analysed essential oils. (A) C. zeylanicum L.; (B) C. cassia L.; (C) O. basilicum L.: (1) Eugenol; (2) Cinnamaldehyde; (3) Metyl chavicol.
Conclusion A method that allows the simultaneous determination of the major components of the essential oils of C. zeylanicum L., C. cassia L. and O. basilicum L. was developed and validated. Validation parameters such as linearity, linear range, limits of detection and limits of quantification and precision (inter and intra-day) were determined. High amounts of the major components were determined. Due to the antioxidant and/or Fig. 4-UHPLC-DAD. antimicrobial activity of these compounds, the studied EO have high potential of application either directly to foods or incorporated in active food packaging, which aim to release their components during food storage or transport.
Acknowledgements This work was supported by research project “Development of an edible film based on whey protein with antioxidant and antimicrobial activity using essential oils” (2012DAN807) funded by the National Institute of Health Dr Ricardo Jorge, I.P. (Lisbon, Portugal). Regiane Ribeiro dos Santos (BEX 8754/14-4) is grateful for her research grant funded by Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES) and Department of Food Technology, Institute of Technology, Rural Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
