Antioxidant Capacity and Phenolic Content of Some Indian Spices and Herbs

Background: Spices and herbs have been a natural source of antioxidants for many years. Spices and herbs have been shown to have medicinal properties that are at-tributed to the phytochemicals present in them. Thus, a comparative study on phenolic con-tent and antioxidants in some common Indian spices/ herbs like ginger, garlic, onion, bay leaf, cumin, and coriander was undertaken in the present study. Materials and Methods: Total phenolics and total antioxidant activity (DPPH radical scav-enging) were estimated in water as well as methanolic extracts of the spices/herbs. Catalase and peroxidase enzyme activity was estimated spectrophotometrically in the aqueous ex-tracts of spices/herbs. Results: The highest catalase and peroxidase activity was estimated in ginger. Phenolic and antioxidant content were also highest in the ginger methanolic extract. The antioxidant con-tent in the methanolic extracts of ginger, bay leaves, onion, and garlic was significantly higher than that in the water extract (p-value <0.001). Conclusion: Our results showed that the selected Indian spices and herbs are rich in phenolic constituents and demonstrate good antioxidant activity. Although much of the antioxidant capacity of plant extracts has been shown to be contributed by phenolic compounds, the present study did not show any significant correlation between the two. This indicated that compounds other than phenolics can serve as good sources of natural plant-based antioxi-dants. Therefore, they need to be studied and explored further. Moreover, solvents used for extraction significantly affect the results, and therefore, they need to be considered while interpreting results.