Antioxidant evaluation: orac analysis of common spices used in Malaysia

Spice is a term used to describe herbal by-products that add flavour, aesthetic, aromatic and therapeutic treatments to food, drink and other food items. Spices play an important role in the nutrition of our daily diet. Scientific research has found that dried spices contain more antioxidants than fruits and vegetables. Compounds derived from commonly used spices have been found to block the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in several in vitro and in vivo systems (Aggarwal et al., 2002). The phytochemicals present in spices play an important role in the suppression of oxidative related pathological conditions such as cancer, diabetic, cardiovascular, pulmonary, neurological and autoimmune diseases (Aggarwal et al., 2008). Currently the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) assay is considered a preferable assay for the evaluation of antioxidant capacity. ORAC is a method of measuring antioxidant capacity of food and beverages (Cao et aI., 1993; Ou et aI., 2001), and it is currently used as an international tool for antioxidant comparison. In general, food that shows a high ORAC value is high in its measure of antioxidant capacity. In this study, ORAC Analysis was carried out on 10 common spices used in Malaysian cuisines i.e. Nigella sativa (black cumin), Piper nigrum (black pepper), Cinnamomum burmannii (cinnamon), Syzgium aromaticum (cloves), Coriandrum sativum (coriander), Cuminum cyminum (cumin), Foeniculum vulgare (fennel), Trigonella foenum-graecum (fenugreek), Brassica nigra (mustard) and Illicium verum (star anise). The freeze dried aqueous extract of the spices showed good ORAC Value, greater than 80,000 µmol per 100 gram TE. Thus a diet rich with antioxidant spices can play an important role in the free-radical theory of aging and pathogenesis (Halliwell & Aruoma, 1991; Ames et al., 1993).