Health benefits and functional properties of dry powder chamomile extract obtained by using spray drying technique

The aim of this study was to obtain dry powder extractwith high health benefits and functional properties. Ethanolic extract was used as a feed for spray drying and process was carried out in a semi-industrial spray dryer. Resulted dry powder was characterized in terms of its biological activity. The ABTS and OH• free radical tests results showed the high antiradical activity of obtained powder (IC50ABTS =7.03 μg/mL ; IC50OH = 39.21 μg/mL). Antimicrobial properties of extract were examined using eight selected indicator strains. Results showed certain level of antimicrobial activity with MIC (minimum inhibitory concentration) values in the range of 9.76-78.12 μg/mL, depending on microbial strain. Ability of chamomile dry powder to inhibit α-amylase, α-glucosidase and tyrosinase was determined by in vitro tests. The MTT assay was performed on four human tumor cell lines (HuT 78, K562, HeLa and NCI-H358) and MDCK as a normal cell line. Tested extract showed cell proliferation of 100% on normal cell lines at all concentrations and slight inhibition of cell proliferation is observed in tumors cell lines at the highest concentration. These findings suggest that the tested chamomile product has strong potential for development as a product with health benefits for organism.