Extraction of Antioxidants from spices

Spices are an important part of our diet mainly because of their taste. They add a great taste to the prepared food. Since the ancient days spices and herbs are also known for their medicinal properties because they are used for treating various kind of illness like cough and cold, diabetes, common cold, gastric ulcer, different types of skin diseases and so on. In the present days, spices are available in different forms and different kinds of non permitted dyes are added to it mainly to protect its texture. These non permitted dyes are harmful and can cause serious illness if consumed regularly. The aim of this project is to estimate, extract and characterize the antioxidants and bioactive molecules from spices. Not only this, the presence of artificial colours are also tested in the spices. Six different spices were taken that we use in our daily life and they are also available easily in the market. They are taken as three different forms (the organic form, the whole spice and the powdered form available in the market) for the experiment. All the spices were treated with aqueous ethanol and polyphenols were estimated with the help of Folin Ciocalteau reagent. The absorbance are recorded using spectrophotometer. The presence of dye like sudan and rhodamine are tested with the help of ethyl acetate and methanol respectively. The functional group are also identified with the IR spectroscopy.