Effect of microwave irradiation on polyphenolic compounds from Satureja hortensis L.

Abstract

Abstract Summer savory (Satureja hortensis L.) is most often used as a culinary herb, but it also has medicinal benefits. The extracts from control and irradiated savory were obtained by ultrasound extraction for 30 minutes in an ethanol — water (80:20, v/v) mixture. Polyphenolic compounds from savory were identified and characterized by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with a photodiode array detector and mass spectrometer. The separation was performed using an Altima C18 column (100×3 mm, 3 μm) and as mobile phase two solvent mixture: A — acetonitrile and B — water-formic acid (99.9:0.1, v/v). Peaks were identified with authentic standards in accordance to retention time, UV spectra and molecular mass. It was identified as caffeic acid, rosmarinic acid, luteolin, naringenin and apigenin. A quantitative determination of polyphenolic compounds was performed applying the external standard method. Our study showed large quantitative differences between the control plant and the irradiated plant.