Antioxidant activity
The phosphomolybdenum method described by Kur´cubi´c et al.
(2014) was used to determine the total antioxidant capacity of
ME. Briefly, 300l ME was mixed with 3mL of reagent solution
(0.6M sulfuric acid, 28mM sodium phosphate, and 4mM ammonium
molybdate) in a test tube. The tubes containing the reaction
solution were caped and heated in a water bath at 95 ◦C for 90 min.
The tubes were cooled to room temperature and the absorbance of
the solution was measured at 695nm using UV-1800 spectrophotometer
(Shimadzu, Japan). Ascorbic acid (Sigma, USA) was used
as a standard (0–0.025 mg/ml, R2 0.965) and the total antioxidant
capacity (TAC) was expressed in mg ascorbic acid equivalent (AAE)
per gram extract. The test was done in triplicates.