Nowadays there are evidences from several studies which have revealed the protective effects of food against chronic diseases. These healthy properties have been related to bioactive compounds. Among bioactive substances, the scientific interest in phenolic compounds has stimulated multidisciplinary research on the composition of plant phenolic compounds. The aim of this work has been to determine the bioactive composition of Carao tree seeds (Cassia grandis) and to optimize the recovering of these compounds for developing functional ingredients. To achieve this goal, pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) has been applied to recover these phytochemicals. The optimization of this innovative extraction procedure was performed by a response surface methodology (RSM) based on a central composite design 23 model to address the bioactive compounds extraction. Phenolic compounds recovered by PLE were characterized using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-TOF-MS). Analytical characterization allowed the identification and quantitation of phenolic compounds belonging to hydroxybenzoic acids and flavonoids (flavonols, flavanols, flavanones and proanthocyanidins). Phytochemical concentrations were used as response variable in order to get the best extraction conditions. These results pointed out that Carao tree seeds can be a potential source of bioactive compounds and PLE extracts could be used as functional ingredients.
Keywords: HPLC-MS; PLE; bioactive compounds; carao tree seeds; phenolics.