Unveiling the phytochemical profile and antioxidant activity of food scraps extracts: Comparative study

Abstract

Abstract The first aim of this research is to develop natural antioxidants derived from plant byproducts for the use in food preservation. In this regard, the antioxidant activities of eight or so fruit and vegetable extracts were investigated. After chemical extraction, the highest contents of polyphenols (92.930 ± 0.047 mg GAE/g) and flavonoids (12.060 ± 0.093 mg QE/g) were obtained with eggplant peel and calyx extract. Cardoon leaf and stem, cabbage leaf, pomegranate peel, fava peel, pea peel, mandarin peel, beetroot leaf, and stem showed total polyphenol content ranging from 34.167 ± 0.178 to 86.400 ± 0.533 mg GAE/g. The antioxidant activity using DPPH test showed that the vegetable extract eggplant has higher activity compared to the other extracts, which is close to the synthetic antioxidant (BHT) with an IC50 of 7.313 ± 0.733 µg/ml. On the other hand, statistically significant relationships between total phenolic and antioxidant activity were also observed.