Value Added Abstract
Paraskevi Mitlianga, Chariklei
Abstract
Medicinal, aromatic plants and herbs are known from ancient times to be of important nutritional and healing value. One of the most known and abundant aromatic plant, indigenous in Greek peninsula is lavender (Lavandula angustifolia). Lavender is a new, alternative crop cultivate in the region of Western Macedonia, Greece. Many scientific literature data exist on the beneficial effects of lavender essential oil in human health. Nevertheless there are no many research data on the phenolic compounds, the antioxidant capacity and antimicrobial activity of lavender beverages. The aim of our work was to investigate the total phenolic content and the antioxidant capacity of beverages (infusions – decoctions) of three different varieties of lavender (Druzba, Sevtopolis, Lavandin), in order to define which beverage has the highest concentration of total phenolic compounds and the highest antioxidant capacity and thus exhibits the greatest benefit on human consumption. Antimicrobial activity of the extracts against selected microorganisms was also investigated. Total phenolic content in the extracts was determined spectrometrically applying the Folin-Ciocalteu assay. Ιn order to determine the antioxidant capacity of the beverages DPPH, ABTS and FRAP methods were used. In addition, the beverage preparation time was compared to antioxidant activity and total phenolic content, so that the optimum preparation time to be defined, in order to achieve the maximum beneficial antioxidant effect for human consumption. Our data suggest that the Lavandin variety beverages exhibit the higher antioxidant activity from all other varieties studied. Total phenolic content appears also higher in the Lavandin variety of L. Angustifolia. Our results on lavender beverages (infusion and decostion) show a significant antimicrobial activity on microorganisms tested and are in agreement with literature data on antimicrobial activity of lavender essential oils. Further work needs to be done in order to isolate and characterize the biologically significant compounds that are present in lavender beverages.