Phenolic content and antioxidant activity of sweet wormwood tea extracts using different solvents

The selection of a suitable solvent is very important when preparing an extract. However, the effect of ethanol solvent concentration in the extraction of sweet wormwood tea has not been reported. Thus, extracts were prepared from sweet wormwood tea using water and various ethanol concentrations, and the phenolic compounds, antioxidants and anti-enzyme activities of the extracts were analyzed. The phenolic acid and flavonoid components differed according to extraction solvent, which also resulted in different antioxidant and antienzyme activities. In particular, flavonoid rhamnetin was not extracted using 80% and 99.5% ethanol and was highest when 60% ethanol was used for extraction. In the case of chlorogenic acid, the highest extraction efficiency was obtained with 80% ethanol. These results suggest the need for research to increase specific extraction efficiency by targeting major compounds that affect physiological activity.