Effect of solvent, time and temperature on the extraction of phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity of peach (Prunus persica L.) fruit

• Single factor experiments approach was used for optimizing phenolics extraction from peach.
• Several extracting parameters were studied: effect of solvent, time and temperature.
• The optimal extraction conditions were determined.
• Good correlations existed between antioxidant activities and TPC.
• This is the first report on optimizing phenolic compounds extraction from peach fruit.

The aim of the present study is to investigate the effects of solvent type (ethanol, methanol, acetone and water), acetone concentration (20–100%, v/v), solvent acidity (0–2 N), time (30–450 min) and temperature (25–70 °C) on the extraction of total phenolic compounds (TPC), total flavonoid compounds (TFC) and on the antioxidant capacity: 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical-scavenging activity (DPPH-RSA) and ferric reducing power (FRP) of peach fruit (Prunus persica L.) using single factor experiments approach. All the studied extracting conditions showed significant effect (p < 0.05) on TPC, TFC, DPPH-RSA and FRP. On the basis of TPC and antioxidant activity parameters, the best extraction conditions were 60% acetone without acidification for 180 min at 25 °C. Based on these optimized conditions, high content of TPC, DPPH-RSA and FRP of peach extracts were obtained with values of 363 GAE/100 g, 48% percentage of inhibition and 317 AAE/100 g, respectively. Good, positive or negative, Pearson correlation coefficients were found between TPC, TFC DPPH-RSA and FRP of peach extracts, especially under the influence of solvent type, solvent concentration and acidity extraction conditions.