Spices have been used for centuries for food preservation, flavors, and medicinal properties. Research suggests that garlic, turmeric, and ginger contain potent antioxidants that may prevent and/or delay chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Heat treatment of spices may potentially increase antioxidative activity by modifying the inherent chemical structure of potent antioxidative compounds within spices. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of thermal treatment of garlic, ginger, and turmeric on total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging activity, ferric reducing antioxidant potential (FRAP), trolox activity (TEAC), lipase, a-amylase, and a-glucosidase inhibition. Conventional stovetop heating of selected spices was performed followed by methanolic and aqueous extractions (1 - 5 minutes; 70°C - 130°C). Overall methanolic extracts had higher phytochemical, antioxidative, and anti-diabetic potential. However, aqueous garlic extracts exhibited higher phytochemical and antioxidative potential over methanolic garlic extracts. The highest TPC for aqueous garlic extracts was observed at 1 minute (14.11 mg GAE/g) while methanolic garlic extracts at 1 minute were significantly lower (1.72 mg GAE/g). Methanolic turmeric extracts had highest TPC at 5 minutes (28.55 mg GAE/g). Time and temperature influenced antioxidant activity in the spices. Turmeric and ginger (methanolic extracts) resulted in higher percent inhibition of DPPH radical with an increase in time (5 minute) turmeric (86.9%) and ginger (79.09%) at 7.9 mg/mL concentration. The results of this study revealed both solvent and time for thermal treatment of spices influenced antioxidative potential as determined using DPPH and FRAP assays. Therefore, the use of thermal application on spices presents promise in potentiating the antioxidant content and thereby their potential health promoting properties. Spices are utilized in the U.S. food industry and increasing their use as a natural antioxidant preservative and flavoring agent may have beneficial impact in food product development.
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