A Novel Strategy for the Separation of Functional Oils from Chamomile Seeds

Stoja Milovanovic; Agnieszka Grzegorczyk; Łukasz Świątek; Anita Grzęda; Agnieszka Dębczak; Katarzyna Tyskiewicz; Marcin Konkol

doi:10.1007/s11947-023-03038-9

A Novel Strategy for the Separation of Functional Oils from Chamomile Seeds

Food Bioproc Tech. 2023 Feb 27:1-16. doi: 10.1007/s11947-023-03038-9. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Stoja Milovanovic^{1

2}, Agnieszka Grzegorczyk³, Łukasz Świątek⁴, Anita Grzęda², Agnieszka Dębczak², Katarzyna Tyskiewicz², Marcin Konkol²

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade, Karnegijeva 4, 11120 Belgrade, Serbia.
² Łukasiewicz Research Network- New Chemical Syntheses Institute, Al. Tysiąclecia Państwa Polskiego 13a, 24-110 Puławy, Poland.
³ Chair and Department of Pharmaceutical Microbiology, Medical University of Lublin, 1 Chodźki Str, 20-093 Lublin, Poland.
⁴ Department of Virology with SARS Laboratory, Medical University of Lublin, 1 Chodźki Str, 20-093 Lublin, Poland.

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to evaluate the oils from chamomile seeds as a new source of bioactive compounds suitable for human consumption. A green extraction technique with supercritical carbon dioxide (sc-CO₂) at pressures up to 450 bar and temperatures up to 60 °C was employed for the production of a high amount of biologically active oil. Additionally, exhausted waste material was re-extracted using sc-CO₂ with the addition of ethanol. By optimization in operating pressure, temperature, production cost, fraction of milled seeds, and co-solvent addition, the amount of separated chamomile oil increased from 2.4 to 18.6% and the content of unsaturated fatty acids up to 88.7%. Oils contained α-bisabolol oxide A and B in amounts up to 1.4%. Linoleic acid was detected in an amount up to 711.1 mg/g and α-linolenic acid up to 27.5 mg/g. The total phenolic content in separated oil reached 80.4 mg GAE/g while the total flavonoid content reached 11.6 mg QE/g. The obtained chamomile oils showed antioxidant activity with an IC₅₀ of up to 3.9 mg/mL. Among the 23 tested microorganisms, the antimicrobial activity of oils was the most pronounced against Gram-positive bacteria. The cytotoxic activity of oils was tested on normal and cancer-derived cell lines. Results indicated a significant potential for oil from chamomile seeds, produced in an eco-friendly manner, as a functional food.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11947-023-03038-9.

Keywords: Antimicrobial activity; Antioxidant activity; Biological activity; Fatty acid composition; Linoleic acid; Total phenolic content.

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