Microwaving plus enzymatic pretreatment of safflower seeds increases the phenolic content and oxidative stability of extracted oil.

In this paper, microwave-assisted (MW-AE), enzyme-assisted (Ene-AE) and microwaving plus enzymatic treatment (MW + Ene-AE) were used to explored their effects on the polyphenols in safflower seeds and safflower seed oil (SSO). The results showed that the introduction of MW-AE treatment prior to Ene-AE enhanced enzyme accessibility, resulting in MW + Ene-AE achieving the highest efficiency for polyphenol extraction from seeds, with a 67 % improvement compared to the control sample. Different treatments significantly altered the composition of polyphenols in the seeds, with a noticeable conversion of polyphenol glycosides to aglycones observed in Ene-AE and MW + Ene-AE. Characterization of SSO revealed that these aglycones migrated more readily into the oil compared to glycosides. The highest TPC in SSO (1143.56 ± 52.43 μg/g) was achieved with MW + Ene-AE, which was 7.75 times higher than that of the untreated sample (130.62 ± 2.38 μg/g). In summary, MW + Ene-AE is an effective method for polyphenol extraction and increasing the TPC of SSO.