RESUMO
The aim of this work was to investigate the phenolic content and antioxidant capacity of infusions of commercial herb samples (fennel, anise, peppermint, lemon grass and lemon balm) popularly consumed in Brazil. The infusion preparation for phenolic extraction was optimized using multivariate planning. Spectrophotometric methods were used to determine in vitro antioxidant activity and total phenolic and flavonoid content. Peppermint infusions had higher phenolic content and antioxidant potential. It was developed and validated a method by HPLC-DAD for the determination of caffeine, phenolic acids and flavonoids and applied for the analysis of the composition of the infusions. Higher concentrations were obtained for chlorogenic and p-coumaric phenolic acids and for flavonoids rutin and catechin. Principal Components Analysis and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis were applied for the comparative evaluation of the phenolic composition of the infusions. The multivariate analyzes indicate that the phenolic profile for the samples of the same species tend to present greater similarities in relation to other herbs and one of the analyzed samples, commercialized as anise, does not belong to the P. anisum species.