ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Food Chemistry
This article is part of the Research TopicExtracts From Plants and Other Natural Sources: Application, Characterization, Optimization, and Their Use - Volume IIView all 8 articles
Optimization of the microwave-assisted extraction of bioactive compounds from Satureja hortensis L.: An Artificial Neural Network approach, chemical profile, extraction kinetics, and thermal properties
Provisionally accepted
Darko Micić1
Saša D. Đurović1*
Ivan Kojic2
Angi E. Skhvediani3Yulia A. Smyatskaya3
Yuri Shatalin4
Tomislav Tosti2Julia G, Bazarnova3
Jinhu Tian5
Andrey V. Vasin3- 1Institute of General and Physical Chemistry, Belgrade, Serbia
- 2Univerzitet u Beogradu, Belgrade, Serbia
- 3Sankt-Peterburgskij politehniceskij universitet Petra Velikogo, Saint Petersburg, Russia
- 4FGBUN Institut teoreticeskoj i eksperimental'noj biofiziki Rossijskoj akademii nauk, Pushchino, Russia
- 5Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
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Herein, an artificial neural network (ANN) was used as a nonlinear regression-based optimization model to optimize the microwave-assisted extraction of summer savory leaves. To achieve the goal, seventeen experiments were conducted, combining different extraction times (20-40 min), ethanol concentrations (68-80%), and irradiation powers (400-800 W). Investigated responses included total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), DPPH, and ABTS assays. The highest outputs were: 256.36 mg GAE/g (GAE-gallic acid equivalents) (40 min, 40% ethanol, and 600 W) for TPC, 35.78 mg RU/g (rutin equivalents) (40 min, 60% ethanol, and 400 W) for TFC, 15.89 μg/mL (20 min, 60% ethanol, and 400W) for DPPH, and 23.06 μg/mL (30 min, 60% ethanol, and 600 W) for ABTS. As a result of optimization, we obtained optimal extraction conditions (40 min, 52.8% ethanol, and 656.1 W) and predicted responses (246.50 mg GAE/g for TPC, 35.66 mg RU/g for TFC, and IC₅₀ and EC₅₀ values of 17.79 μg/mL and 25.79 μg/mL for DPPH and ABTS assays, respectively). The experimentally obtained values for the investigated responses were 242.25 mg GAE/g, 36.30 mg RU/g, 17.10 µg/mL, and 24.48 µg/mL for TPC, TFC, IC50, and EC50, respectively, confirming the validity of the optimization process. Total content of the quantified phenolic compounds was 91.47 μg/mL. The principal compound was rosmarinic acid (80.99 μg/mL), followed by chlorogenic acid (2.64 μg/mL), rutin (1.45 μg/mL), and apigenin (1.31 μg/mL). Kinetic modeling showed that Model II provided the best fit for TFC, while Model IV provided the best fit for TPC.
Keywords: Satureja hortensis, Microwave-assisted extraction, optimization, artificial neural network, Chemical profile, Biological activity, Thermal properties
Received: 01 Sep 2025; Accepted: 17 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Micić, Đurović, Kojic, Skhvediani, Smyatskaya, Shatalin, Tosti, Bazarnova, Tian and Vasin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Saša D. Đurović, sasatfns@uns.ac.rs
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