Recent advances in analytical methods and instrumentation for natural antioxidants analysis

Natural antioxidants, primarily produced from plants, have significant roles in avoiding oxidative stress related issues, enhancing shelf life of food, and improving human health. Because of the existence of wide range of antioxidants like flavonoids, phenolic acids, tannins, carotenoids, vitamins, it is difficult for characterization and evaluation of antioxidants. Conventional antioxidant assays are commonly employed till today; however they provide limited structural and biological insights. These constraints can be overcome by the application of advanced analytical techniques like chromatography, spectroscopy etc. which provide greater sensitivity and more accurate structural characterization. Recent research has highlighted the use of these approaches for qualitative and quantitative analysis, also for evaluating antioxidant activity in various matrices such as plant materials, food, nutraceuticals etc. The present study summarizes recent developments, comparison of various analytical methods and also highlighted the advantages and limitations of those methods. Emerging analytical techniques that combine green extraction methods for sample preparation, hyphenated analytical technique for analysis and chemometrics for data interpretation hold promise for reliable, rapid and sustainable natural antioxidant analysis.