Determination of antioxidant potential of Agaricus macrosporus and Russula vesca mushroom extract

Abstract

The aim of this research was to determine the content of bioactive compounds phenols and flavonoids in two extracts (aqueous and ethanolic) of two wild mushroom species: Agaricus macrosporus and Russula vesca collected from the Republic of North Macedonia. Moreover, their antioxidant potential was determine through the ability to capture free DPPH radicals, as well as chelating iron ions. Generally, aqueous extracts showed slightly higher, statistically significant (p<0.05) antioxidant activity, compared to the ethanolic extract. Aqueous extract of Agaricus macrosporus was characterised with statistically significant (p<0.05) higher content of phenols, compared to the same extract of Russula vesca. On the other hand, both tested extracts of Russula vesca had statistically significant (p<0.05) higher content of flavonoids, compared to those of Agaricus macrosporus. Therefore, it can be concluded that the aqueous extracts of both tested mushrooms showed good antioxidant properties that can be a substitute for some of the synthetic antioxidants used for industrial purposes. According to that, this study can be a novel starting point for future research in which mushroom extracts can be used in various fields such as food industry, pharmaceutics, medicine or cosmetics.