Antioxidant Capacity in Vanilla Extracts Obtained by Applying Focused Microwaves.docVIP

Food and Nutrition Sciences, 2013, 4, 244-253 /10.4236/fns.2013.48A030 Published Online August 2013 (/journal/fns) Antioxidant Capacity in Vanilla Extracts Obtained by Applying Focused Microwaves Adalith Rojas-López, María P. Ca?izares-Macías * Departamento de Química Analítica, Facultad de Química, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México D.F., México. * Email: pilarm@unam.mx Received April 6 , 2013; revised May 6 , 2013; accepted May 13 , 2013 th th th Copyright ? 2013 Adalith Rojas-López, María P. Ca?izares-Macías. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT ORAC method and a continuous flow injection method based on Folin-Ciocalteau reaction (FI-FC) were used for de- termining the antioxidant activity in extracts obtained by using focused microwaves. Analysis of the antioxidant capac- ity (AC) of the main compounds of vanilla (vanillin, p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, p-hydroxybenzoic acid and vanillic acid) was also carried out. Vanilla extracts obtained by using focused microwaves had a higher AC (between 72% and 117%) than the obtained by conventional methods. Vanillin had a linear correlation with the antioxidant capacity of the ex- tracts and it is the most influential compound in the antioxidant power. The AC calculated by the ORAC method and the FI-FC method had a ratio 2:1 because of different kinetics and reaction mechanisms of the antioxidants with the reagents, so it is necessary more than one method to establish the antioxidant power in food. On base on the results of the present study microwaves energy can be used to obtain vanilla extracts to improve the AC of them. Keywords: Focused Microwaves; Vanilla; Antioxid