Chemometric Assessment of Spectroscopic Techniques and Antioxidant Activity for Hippophae rhamnoides L. Extracts Obtained by Different Isolation Methods

Abstract

In recent years, natural plants experience a growing interest in many fields (e.g., cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and food), and represent an important source of bioactive molecules. The aim of this work was to investigate the antioxidant activity of Hippophae rhamnoides L. berry extracts obtained by ultrasound-assisted extraction, rapid extraction under pressure and subcritical fluid extraction in order to determine the best isolation method for other pharmaceuticals. Since solvents play an important role for the extraction techniques, different mixtures of water and alcohol, glycerin, or propylene glycol and 1, 1, 1, 2-tetrafluorethane were used. The antioxidant activity potential of different of sea buckthorn berry extracts was evaluated using 1, 1-d-2- picrylhydrazyl (DPPH). The combination of Fourier transform infrared and Raman spectroscopy identified the main phenolic components that play an important role in the antioxidant capacity of the sea buckthorn berries. The analysis suggests that the highest antioxidant activity was recorded for the extract obtained by subcritical fluid method based on the high mass of flavonoids. In view of the above considerations, the chemical fingerprinting of Hippophae rhamnoides L. extracts was obtained by three methods through analytical techniques coupled with advanced chemometric tools.

Keywords:

• Hippophae rhamnoides L.
• extract
• attenuated total reflection—Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
• Raman spectroscopy
• antioxidant activity
• chemometry