Wild Edible Plants as Potential Antioxidants in Vegetables Oils

The effect of the addition of fruits of Rosa canina and Quercus ballota and leaves of Sanguisorba minor to sunflower, seed, and olive oils on lipid oxidation during the frying process was analyzed. The three underutilised edible plants increased the oxidative stability of the sunflower oil, since the malondialdehyde (MDA) content was significantly decreased with respect to values of the control sunflower oil after the heating process. However, in olive oil, the effect of these edible plants on decreasing the lipid peroxidation was only evident for the highest concentration, while in seed oil the addition of the edible plant showed a prooxidant effect. Thus, these wild edible plants could be used to enrich vegetable oils with low content of natural antioxidant, such as sunflower oil, and avoid or decrease the use of synthetic antioxidant.