Czech J. Food Sci., 2012, 30(2):164-170 | DOI: 10.17221/509/2010-CJFS

Isolation of some compounds from nutmeg and their antioxidant activities

Jian-Ping Hou^{1, 3}, Hou Wu², Yi Wang^{1, 3}, Xin-Chu Weng^{1, 3}

¹ State Key Laboratory of Dairy Biotechnology, Technology Center of Bright Dairy and Food Co. Ltd., Shanghai, P.R. China

² Department of Food Science, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, USA

³ School of Life Science, Shanghai University, Shanghai, P.R. China

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.

Keywords: malabaricone C; oil stability index; reducing power; radical scavenging activity

Published: April 30, 2012  Show citation