Identification of Extraction Conditions for Determination of Phenolic Contents of Garden Cress Seed (Lepidium sativum L.) and Its Milled Fractions

Garden cress seed (Lepidium sativum L.) is an important medicinal source used in traditional medicine for the treatment of various diseases. Polyphenols are well known for their health benefits. They have antioxidant activity and free radical scavenging ability. A diet rich in plant polyphenols gives protection against the development of cancers, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, osteoporosis and neurodegenerative diseases. This investigation was conducted to identify the extraction conditions of polyphenols from whole garden cress (Gc) seeds and to estimate the total polyphenol content (TPC) of its milled fractions. In this study, a set of single-factor experiment was carried out for identifying the optimum condition of each independent variable affecting the extraction of total phenolic content (TPC) from whole Gc seeds, namely the solvent, extraction temperature and extraction time. HCl–methanol (1 %) as solvent at 60 °C for 70 min (×3) was observed as optimized condition to extract maximum TPC (2068 mg GAE/100 g) from Gc seeds. TPC of whole Gc seed, seed coat and dehulled Gc seed was 2,081, 895 and 2,514 mg GAE/100 g, respectively. The result is useful for the development of Gc seed-based polyphenol-rich health food formulation.