Mineral matter contents, antioxidant activities and total phenols of basil genotypes

Basil is a species of the genus Ocimum, Lamiaceae family recognized for its bioactive constituents that underlie applications in nutrition, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. This paper presents a comparative study on the mineral content, total polyphenols, and antioxidant activity of a selection of 12 basil genotypes cultivated in the southwest of Romania. The results demonstrated that the studied genotypes exhibited different antioxidant profiles, being an excellent source of mineral substances and phenolic compounds that can be used to address nutritional and antioxidant deficiencies in the daily diet. The mineral element concentrations in the studied genotypes varied as follows: Ca from 17,901 to 29.490 mg kg-1 D.W.; Mg from 5.891 to 11.997 mg kg-1 D.W.; K from 12.502 to 29.209 mg kg-1 D.W.; Na from 33.10 to 95.63 mg kg-1 D.W.; Cu from 6.28 to 11.2 mg kg-1 D.W.; Fe from 105.0 to 293.0 mg kg-1 D.W.; Mn from 37.9 to 89.0 mg/kg-1 D.W. and Zn from 11.0 to 57.9 mg/kg-1 D.W. The antioxidant activity, determined by the DPPH method, ranged from 27.43 µM TE g-1 D.W. to 30.66 µM TE g-1 D.W., while the total polyphenol content varied from 1.056 mg g-1 D.W. to 6.087 mg GAE g-1 D.W. These results support that the genotypes studied can be cultivated and used as raw material for obtaining nutraceutical products or in the food industry. These genotypes could be further cultivated and used as raw material for the production of nutraceutical products or in the food industry.