Methodologies for extraction, isolation, characterisation, and quantification of bioactive compounds.

Abstract

Since it is widely recognized that the beneficial influence of fruit on human health is linked with the presence of specific phytochemicals, determining the nature of these compounds in different commodities, and the influence of preharvest, postharvest and processing treatments, have been major areas ofresearch (Espin et al., 2007; Frankel, 2007). Antioxidants can be measured as individual compounds or as a total capacity, yet some methods used to quantify total antioxidant activity are thought to take into account compounds not classed as antioxidants, for instance, reducing sugars (Huang et al., 2005). This chapter summarizes the wide variety of extraction and characterization techniques used to quantify individual or total antioxidants, as well as other bioactive compounds.