Enrichment and Assessment of the Contributions of the Major Polyphenols to the Total Antioxidant Activity of Onion Extracts: A Fractionation by Flash Chromatography Approach

The present study extensively fractionated crude red onion extract in order to identify the polyphenols which contributed most in the total antioxidant capacity of the onion extract using a flash chromatography system. The flash separations produced 70 fractions which were tested for their total phenol content, total flavonoid content, and antioxidant capacities as measured by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays. Out of these 70 fractions, four fractions which were representatives of the four major peaks of the flash chromatograms, were further analysed for their constituent polyphenols using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The main contributor of onion antioxidant capacity is quercetin glycoside followed by quercetin aglycone although quercetin aglycone had higher antioxidant capacity than its glycosidic counterparts. High abundance of quercetin glycosides such as quercetin-3,4′-diglucoside and quercetin-4′-glucoside had compensated for their relatively low antioxidant capacities. A Higher degree of glycosylation resulted in lower antioxidant capacity. The fractionation approach also contributed in enrichment of the onion antioxidant polyphenols. A >9 folds enrichment was possible by discarding the early fractions (fractions 1–15) which contained the main bulk of the extracts, predominantly sugars.