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Effect of solvent extraction on the antioxidant and phytochemical profiles of ellagitannins from “wonderful” pomegranate peel: an advanced chemometrics analysis

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Abstract

Ellagitannins are the predominant bioactive tannins present in the peel of pomegranate. Studies have explored different extraction solvents to maximize recovery of the bioactive phytochemicals in pomegranate peel but lack proper statistical correlation between the extraction solvent, phytochemistry and bioactivity. This study employed advanced chemometrics models, including principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal projections to latent structures (OPLS) in determining the solvent extraction (among methanol, ethanol, acetone and water) that will yield optimum antioxidant and ellagitannins profiles from “Wonderful” pomegranate peel. Acetone extraction had the highest (p ˂ 0.05) total phenol (TFC) and flavonoid contents and strongest (p ˂ 0.05) Fe3+ reducing effect, while methanol extraction had the strongest (p ˂ 0.05) radical scavenging activity. The oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) and anti-lipid peroxidative activities of both solvent extractions outperformed that of the ethanol and water extractions. Tannins purified using Amberlite® XAD16N resin were highest for acetone and methanol extractions. LCMS-quantified ellagitannins in the tannins varied for the different extractions. PCA and OPLS models adequately characterized, described and predicted the variation and patterns in the antioxidant and ellagitannins datasets (up to 95% for PCA). OPLS bi-plot showed that the high ellagic acid constituents and total tannins yield of the methanol extraction influenced its potent radical scavenging activity, while the ellagitannin constituents including punicalagins, granatin A, geraniin and casuarinin influenced the high TFC, as well as the potent Fe3+ reducing, ORAC and anti-lipid peroxidative activities of acetone extraction. Acetone and methanol extraction of pomegranate peel are promising for optimum ellagitannins recovery and antioxidant profile.

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Data Availability

The data of this study is available from the corresponding author on request.

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Funding

The study was funded by the postgraduate scholarship (reference: MND210530604823) and Thuthuka grant (reference: 129865) of the National Research Foundation, South Africa.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Central University of Technology, Bloemfontein, 9301, Free State, South Africa

    Reaotshepa Setlhodi, Boitumelo Mashile & Gloria O. Izu

  2. Centre for Quality of Health and Living (CQHL), Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Central University of Technology, Bloemfontein, 9301, Free State, South Africa

    Reaotshepa Setlhodi, Boitumelo Mashile, Gloria O. Izu, Samson S. Mashele, Tshepiso J. Makhafola & Chika I. Chukwuma

  3. Department of Biotechnology and Food Technology, Faculty of Science, Doornfontein Campus, University of Johannesburg, P.O Box 17011, Johannesburg, 2028, Gauteng, South Africa

    Sefater Gbashi

  4. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

    Susanna L. Bonnet

Authors
  1. Reaotshepa Setlhodi
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  2. Boitumelo Mashile
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  4. Sefater Gbashi
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  7. Tshepiso J. Makhafola
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  8. Chika I. Chukwuma
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Contributions

Conceptualization: CIC; Data curation: RS, BM, GOI; Funding acquisition: CIC; Methodology: RS, BM, GOI, SG, SSM, SLB, TJM and CIC; Resources: SSM, TJM and CIC; Software: SG, SLB and CIC; Supervision: SSM and CIC; Formal analysis: RS, BM, GOI, SG and CIC; Writing—original draft: RS; Writing—review & editing: BM, GOI, SG, SSM, SLB, TJM and CIC.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chika I. Chukwuma.

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Setlhodi, R., Mashile, B., Izu, G.O. et al. Effect of solvent extraction on the antioxidant and phytochemical profiles of ellagitannins from “wonderful” pomegranate peel: an advanced chemometrics analysis. Eur Food Res Technol 249, 1807–1820 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00217-023-04255-4

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