Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Capacity of Quinic Acid

Abstract

Recently, agents with natural antioxidant and antimicrobial properties have been popularly studied. For this purpose, phenolic compounds, terpenes, and organic acids are examined for their antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. Of these, organic acids are increasingly being used in pharmacology, medicine, food, and industry. Quinic acid is a natural organic compound found in many edible fruits and plants. In this study, the antioxidant effect of quinic acid, which has the structure of cyclohexane carboxylic acid, was determined in vitro using seven different methods (DPPH, ABTS, CUPRAC, DMPD, FRAP, Fe3+ reduction, and Total antioxidant method). In addition, its antimicrobial effect on fungi (C. albicans), gram-positive bacteria (S. aureus, S. pyogenes), and gram-negative bacteria (E. coli, K. pneumoniae, and P. aeruginosa) were determined by the disk diffusion method. As a result, it was found that quinic acid has broad-spectrum antimicrobial properties, but its antioxidant properties are too low to be highlighted. While its antimicrobial activity was quite good, especially on K. pneumoniae E. coli, S. aureus, S. Pyogenes, and P. aeruginosa, it did not show any effect on C. albicans. Although the antioxidant property of quinic acid is low, it showed more antioxidant properties in the DMPD method, which is one of these methods, because it dissolves very well in water.