RT journal article
T1 Optimization of a Microwave Assisted Extraction Method for Maximum Flavonols and Antioxidant Activity of Onion Extracts
A1 Velasco González de Peredo, Ana
A1 Vázquez Espinosa, Mercedes
A1 Espada Bellido, Estrella
A1 Ferreiro González, Marta
A1 Fernández Barbero, Gerardo
A1 Palma Lovillo, Miguel
A1 Carrera Fernández, Ceferino Adrián
A2 Química Analítica
K1 Allium cepa L.
K1 antioxidant activity
K1 Box–Behnken design
K1 flavonols
K1 microwave-assisted extraction
K1 onion
K1 response surface methodology
K1 UHPLC
AB Nowadays, consumers demand bioactive foods that have the potential to limit the risk of suffering from several medical conditions. Onions present these desirable capabilities owing to its high content in antioxidant bioactive compounds. This work has used a Box–Behnken design with a response surface methodology to determine the best conditions in which to extract the polyphenols that are found in onions. Two extraction methods—one for the extraction of total flavonols and another one intended to obtain extracts with the highest possible antioxidant activity—have been developed and optimized. The following factors have been studied: temperature, %methanol in water, solvent pH, and sample–solvent volumetric ratio. The optimal conditions for the extraction of flavonols were 93.8% methanol in water, pH 2, 50 °C extraction temperature and 0.2:17.9 g:mL sample–solvent ratio. The best antioxidant activity levels were registered when using 74.2% methanol in water, pH 2, 99.9 °C extraction temperature and 0.2:18.2 g:mL sample–solvent ratio. Both optimized methods used short extraction times, and presented good precision levels and successful results when used with an assortment of onion varieties. According to total flavonols and antioxidant activity data, with 7.557 ± 0.3261 and 12.08 ± 0.0379 mg g−1, respectively, the developed methods achieved comparable or even superior results to those obtained by other authors.
PB MDPI
SN 2076-3921
YR 2022
FD 2022-12-02
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/29175
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/29175
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 12-nov-2026