Potential of selected Mediterranean plants in enrichment and production of functional dairy products

Medicinal plant extracts can serve as the functional constituents for the dairy products enrichment due to the presence of bioactive compounds. Except beneficial effect on human health, plant extracts also have antimicrobial activity which can extend shelf life of foods. Plant extracts can be dried and added to milk raw materials in the powder form and the choice of extraction technique and conditions significantly affect the yield of target groups of bioactive molecules in powder production. In this study the yields of total phenolics (TP), flavonoids (TF), hydroxycinnamate acids (THCA), flavonols (TFL) and pigments (TPIG) of carob pod (Ceratonia siliqua L.), bay (Laurus nobilis L.) and sage (Salvia officinalis L.) leaves were evaluated using different extraction techniques and solvents, respectively. The selected plants were successive extracted with hexane, 80%-acetone and 96%-ethanol in shaking water bath (SWB) and under ultrasound-assisted (UAE) and accelerated solvent extraction (ASE). Mass fraction of TP, TF, THCA, TFL, TPIG were determined by spectrophotometric methods. The highest TP, TF and THCA content was determined in sage extracts obtained by UAE and the highest TFL content by SWB technique. Laurel extracts had the highest TPIG content using a SWB and ASE technique. In general, sage was richer source of phenolics and laurel of pigments while UAE technique was better method for phenolic and ASE for pigments extraction.