Journal of Food Measurement and Characterization (2021) 15:449–456

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11694-020-00652-5

ORIGINAL PAPER

Evaluation of bioactive compounds and antibacterial activity

of Pulicaria jaubertii extract obtained by supercritical and conventional
methods
Qais Ali Al‑Maqtari1,2,3,4 · Amer Ali Mahdi1,3,5 · Waleed Al‑Ansi1,3,5 · Jalaleldeen Khaleel Mohammed1,5 ·
Minping Wei1,2 · Weirong Yao1,2 

Received: 18 May 2020 / Accepted: 8 September 2020 / Published online: 14 September 2020
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract
Pulicaria jaubertii (PJ) is a fragrant herb traditionally used in medication and as a food seasoning. To date, there are no stud-
ies on the use of supercritical fluids extraction with carbon dioxide (SFE-CO2) on PJ. This study evaluates and compares the
Total phenolic contents (TPC), antioxidant activity by D ­ PPH·, antioxidant capacity by A­ BTS·+, and antibacterial activities
of the PJ extract. Extraction was done by using two different methods namely, SFE-CO2 with 10% ethanol (EtOH) as a co-
solvent and conventional extraction by Shaking (Sh) with two solvents (EtOH and water) with different concentrations (100,
70, 50, 30 and 0% v/v). The highest extraction yield and antioxidant capacity were obtained by Sh-EtOH 50% [13.9% and
91.24 Trolox equivalents per g dry extract (mg TE/g DE)] respectively. The extract obtained by Sh-EtOH 70% represented
the highest TPC and antioxidant inhibition values (899.02 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/g DE and 76.93%) respectively.
The SFE-CO2 extract has significantly greater antimicrobial activity and is more effective against Gram-positive bacteria.
The most sensitive bacterium was B. subtilis, while the most resistant bacterium was P. aeruginosa. The optimum values of
minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) against B. subtilis were noticed in
SFE-CO2 extract (0.4 mg/ml) for both. Overall, the results of this study indicated that PJ is a good source of TPC, antioxi-
dants, and antibacterial compounds.

Keywords  Pulicaria jaubertii · Supercritical fluids extraction · Total phenolic content · Antioxidant · Antibacterial

Introduction

Pulicaria jaubertii (PJ) is one of the species of Pulicaria

Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this
article (https​://doi.org/10.1007/s1169​4-020-00652​-5) contains
supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
* Weirong Yao
yaoweirongcn@jiangnan.edu.cn
1 tions [3], and is also being used as a food additive [4]. The
State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology,
School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan
University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi 214122, Jiangsu, China
2
International Joint Laboratory on Food Safety, Jiangnan
University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi 214122, Jiangsu, China
3
Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty
of Agriculture, Sana’a University, Sana’a, Yemen
4
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Sana’a
University, Sana’a, Yemen
5
National Engineering Research Center for Functional Food,
Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi 214122, China
genera in Asteraceae family [1]. The plants of the Asteraceae
family and the Pulicaria genus especially PJ are cultivating
in the Republic of Yemen and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
[2]. PJ is a fragrant permanent herb that has been tradition-
ally used as an insect repellent and to treat fever and infec-
essential oil of PJ has remarkable anti-microbial, anti-fungal,
anti-malarial, and anti-insects properties [1, 3, 5]. However,
very few researches have been done on bioactive and volatile
compounds of PJ [3, 6].
In general, the recovery of biologically active compounds
from plants remains of interest due to their potential in devel-
oping and manufacturing functional components [7]. The bio-
active compounds in plants are surrounded by insoluble struc-
tures such as vacuoles and lipoprotein layers which complicate
the extraction process [8]. Recently, several new extraction

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