Study on nitrite scavenging capability of 10 spice extracts

The scavenging capability of 10 spice extracts on nitrite was researched. The nitrite scavenging activity,reducing power and content of flavonoids,polyphenols,polysaccharides and saponins were estimated by spectrophotometric method.Furthermore,the correlation between the nitrite scavenging activity and the reducing power,the active component content was analyzed by correlation coefficient method,respectively.It was found that different spice extracts had wide differences in nitrite scavenging activity,the Clove extract was the strongest among them,followed by Cassia and Zanthoxylum,Cumin extract was the worst.Meanwhile,the nitrite scavenging activity had positive correlation( p < 0.01) with the reducing power and the contents of polyphenols or saponins,the correlation coefficient was 0.946,0.910 and 0.805,respectively.Hence,the extract of Clove,Cassia and Zanthoxylum was expected to be exploited as functional foods of scavenging nitrite; the main active ingredients of 10 spice extracts were polyphenols and saponins,besides,the function of extracts and their antioxidant activity( the reducing power) were closely related.