Isolation of some compounds from nutmeg and their antioxidant activities

Abstract

Six compounds, licarin-B (1), dehydrodiisoeugenol (2), malabaricone B (3), malabaricone C (4), β-sitosterol (5), and daucosterol (6) were isolated from the seed (nutmeg) of Myristica fragrans Houtt and identified. Among them, malabaricone B was identified for the first time in nutmeg. Antioxidant activities of the isolated compounds were studied using oil stability index (OSI), reducing power, ABTS●+ scavenging, and DPPH● scavenging methods. The results showed that Malabaricone C is an efficient antioxidant agent which exhibits a stronger antioxidant activity than the commonly used synthetic antioxidants in all studied methods. This compound may have a potential to be used as a natural antioxidant in food.